


In Dreams

by Circe (ELG)



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Bestiality, M/M, Rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-17
Updated: 2013-03-17
Packaged: 2017-12-05 16:03:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 60,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/725175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ELG/pseuds/Circe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Hetari landscape is being destroyed by a Shaman with the power to enter the dreams of others. These peaceful people can only be saved in Daniel realizes the true identity of the ‘Good Dreamer’ who comes to him when he sleeps. Jack has seven days to make Daniel perceive the truth or else the Hetari tribe will fall under the power of the Shaman and Daniel will be imprisoned in hell forever.<br/>WARNINGS: This work contains graphic scenes of rape, bestiality, and violence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Dreams

Lying on his sleeping bag in the Hetari teepee, Daniel had been watching the moon grow brighter as the evening darkened into night. The stars were brilliant here, lighting up the sky like the fiery glint buried in the heart of an opal. There were so many more of them than he had seen on any other world, forming dense swirls of light out of which, with half a mind, he was trying to make recognizable shapes. He had already identified the jaguar and serpent constellations Jack had told him about. He could make out a bear form over to the right, and, so high above him he had to crane his neck to see it, was something which could easily be a black eagle. The people here called that one 'Ankana', which was also the tribal chieftain's name, a word very similar to the Quechua 'anka', but there were other words in the language which were more similar to Mayan or Arawak. Just another puzzle in a whole bundle of puzzles about these people's background and culture. He was finding these stars soothing in a way he never really had the ones visible from earth. Those had always made him feel small and insignificant, despite the hours Jack had spent making him shiver on his roof and peer myopically through that damned telescope. But these constellations seemed to welcome him into the cosmos, wrap themselves around him like a blanket of light as though he was a part of them.

With the other half of his mind he was listening for Jack, but he was very afraid he wasn't coming. Which meant Daniel wasn't invited to the Ritual after all.

Daniel was trying to push that thought away because the disappointment would be too unbearable. He had never known a people who excited his curiosity as much as the Hetari, and there was a terrible irony that here in one of the most spiritual cultures they had encountered, he was being treated as little more than an afterthought while Jack had been welcomed into their confidence. He knew Jack would tell him what happened at this Ritual, but that wasn't enough; he wanted to go, to be part of it, to be trusted and accepted.

Daniel wasn't quite certain how Jack had ended up being the ambassador on this trip anyway. The elders here just seemed to have…taken to him. They seemed to like Daniel too, but he was clearly more alien to them than Jack was, and their liking was of the indulgent kind one affords a child. Chief Ankana hadn't exactly told him to run away and play when Daniel had tried to ask him about their history, but he hadn't felt he was being taken very seriously. By comparison, even though Jack couldn't speak a word of their language, he and Chief Ankana had seemed to hit it off at once. Which was why for the night of the Ritual – whatever the Ritual might be – Daniel wasn't even sure if he was going to get invited into Chief Ankana's wigwam while Jack's place around the fire was already secure. He was trying not to mind but he couldn't help feeling a little put out. 

They'd been here for two days and all the signs so far were promising. The people were friendly and peaceful. The Goa'uld long since gone from their land. Sam had found evidence of naqadah, and it seemed possible the tribal leaders might allow them to take some of it as long as their mining methods were not invasive. As even a small quantity of the ore would be invaluable to them, as soon as the first report had gone back through the gate, General Hammond had told them they could take all the time they needed. Oddly enough, Jack, who was usually so impatient, seemed to feel this was the perfect vacation spot. And it didn't even seem to be to do with the fish in the blue lakes that decorated this fertile tree-covered country. It seemed to be to do with…spiritual stuff.

Daniel was still trying to get his head around that one.

Maybe if he hadn't been so tired he might have been able to work out just why Jack was going native on them. But the weird dreams he'd been having for the last few months had left him a little short of sleep – not to mention frustrated because he could never remember a damned thing about any of them when he woke up, and yet knew he'd been dreaming and that the dreams had been…significant in some way. Janet Fraiser had told him it was just fallout from the ribbon device. His mind was probably still chasing after those images Sha're had sent him while Amaunet was trying to kill him. But he was never thinking of Sha're when he woke up, and there had been no faint scent of her perfume lingering in his consciousness. He suspected they were about something else entirely, but he had no idea what. He also suspected that as soon as his eyes closed and he drifted back into the dream state he remembered every other dream and understood their significance. But the second he awoke, everything was gone, except for a lingering feeling, regret for something wonderful he'd been enjoying and now had lost. The urge to go back to sleep and burrow back into the comfort of that dream place was getting harder and harder to resist. But he hoped his lack of sleep hadn't made him screw-up the initial contact. He obviously hadn't done any lasting damage because the people had shown them every hospitality, but he had tripped over a few things, which might not have impressed them too much with him personally.

He hadn't made a lot of progress in trying to work out exactly who these people were. Native Americans of some kind, obviously, and he thought they might be descendants of the Anazasi, but they had been vague about their origins, and it seemed impolite to push. He was hoping he might find out more tonight at the Ritual. If he was allowed to attend. It had already been gently but firmly intimated that no one bearing the enemy of the Hetari people – even if he himself was their ally – could be party to the Ritual, which effectively ruled out Teal'c. And no women. Which left Sam out in the cold as well. But no one had said anything as yet about people with allergies or who wore glasses so Daniel was trying to keep his hopes up. He was also trying not to sneeze and had put his glasses in his pocket, just to be on the safe side.

The fact that Chief Ankana had insisted Teal'c and Sam shared one teepee while he and Jack shared another did seem to suggest he had been put in the 'possible' pile rather than the 'automatically banned' one so he was trying to stay optimistic. All the same it was a great relief when he heard the sound of those familiar footsteps on the earth outside.

"Ready to go?" Jack stuck his head in through the flap of the teepee.

Daniel tried not to look too much like someone who'd been straining his ears for an hour to hear if a summons was still possible or if they'd started without him. He leapt to his feet so fast he tripped over his pack and would have fallen if Jack hadn't caught him. For a second he was in Jack's arms, his face against Jack's, the man's evening stubble gently scraping against his own smooth cheek, smelling of sweat, wood smoke and some subtle odor that was so familiar it was like his own scent. Part of his dream tugged at him like a fractious toddler, and then Jack set him back on his feet and the memory vanished again.

"Eager, aren't we?" The man looked at him in amusement.

Daniel went to put his glasses on, and then remembered that they might not go down well with his hosts so shoved them back in his pocket. He tried not to look sheepish. "Just curious."

He followed Jack over to Chief Ankana's wigwam, the wooden structure looking grand and imposing beside the teepees scattered around the camp. As always he was drawn to the totem pole, which showed, not the eagle and wolf he had expected, but the jaguar and the snake. Mayan symbolic creatures despite the fact this was clearly not a Mayan culture. Symbols of the underworld, the realm of the unconscious. That was curious as well. Sometimes when he passed them those two symbols looked malevolent and dangerous, at others calm and protective. He presumed that was the dreams making him over-imaginative.

Jack spoke over his shoulder. "You know I don't really speak the lingo, but I gather this is a significant date in their calendar. And I've told Ankana we're happy to share any information we can in exchange for being allowed to…sit in on this."

"You and Chief Ankana have spent enough time together; I would have thought you'd have told him everything he wanted to know by now." Daniel tried not to sound miffed at the way he'd been excluded from the talks, waiting endlessly for an interpreter to be sent for and more than willing to obey the summons, but no summons coming.

Now he waited for Jack to tell him that he and Ankana hadn't been able to say squat to each other because they didn't speak each other's language. Jack didn't. The man shrugged. "Well, not that kind of information. I've told him about the Goa'uld and our history and stuff but – "

"How?" Daniel demanded. 

Jack wouldn't meet Daniel's eye. "You know – sign language and stuff."

"So what information is it he wants tonight?"

Jack looked awkward. "He says they need dreams to survive."

"Don't we all?"

"Good dreams."

Daniel darted the man a sideways look. "And?"

"He says 'When two dreams cannot find each other, they wither and die. If they join, everything flourishes. A perfect joining guarantees the Hetari race will live on.' " Jack grimaced as he said it, as though he was taking no responsibility for the words themselves, but Daniel couldn't help noticing he seemed to have remembered them in perfect detail.

Daniel made no attempt to hide his cynicism. "That must be quite some sign language you've got going there, Jack. And here I was thinking you only had that 'you go right, I'll go left, and we all shoot the people over there' stuff at your disposal."

"Daniel…" A warning and plea combined while Jack's hand on his shoulder was even harder to resist. "Not to put too fine a point on it, they think you have interesting dreams."

"I don't remember them. And how do they know anyway, I never told anyone…?"

Jack pulled a face. "They know…lots of stuff, Daniel. But you don’t need to fight it. They don't mean us any harm."

And wasn't that his line? Damnit to hell what was happening on this trip? Had he and Jack had some kind of personality exchange? He shot Jack a sideways look just before they entered the wigwam. "You haven't been Born Again or something have you?"

"Do the words 'cruising for a bruising' ring any bells with you, Daniel?"

Daniel smiled, the relief warming him like a sip of brandy. Maybe he was still the same old Jack after all.

***

This was what it must be like for Jack on other missions. Sitting around a fire whose smoke was painting tantalizing pictures on the walls, in a circle with a bunch of strange men, struggling to keep awake while people said a lot of things he didn't really understand. He looked around at their faces, the straight noses and wide cheekbones, the glossy black, or in some cases silver streaked hair, the bare skin daubed with streaks of red, yellow and black clay, the deerskin loincloths and feathers in their hair mostly the only clothing. For once, Daniel was the one who felt out of place, and Jack the one who seemed right at home. The Air Force colonel was sitting cross-legged on the far side of the fire, talking to Chief Ankana like they were both from Chicago.

Ankana had long grey hair and looked as though he was from a mix of North and South American Indian blood. Perhaps there had been some meeting between the Anasazi and the Maya. Perhaps the Goa'uld had decided to do some cross-pollination of their own, and the Hetari were the result. These were a people who certainly seemed to have more than one foot in the spirit realm whatever their origins. Making it all the more peculiar that Jack was so at home with them.

Although Jack seemed to have no trouble in communicating with Ankana, Daniel still hadn't worked out how he was doing it. But then he was having trouble working anything out right now because he was, not to put too fine a point on it, drunk.

They'd passed the warm red liquid around in a carved wooden bowl, and he'd been encouraged to drink deep. Just for a second he'd had a flashback to the Blood of Sokar they'd force-fed him in Netu, and he'd had to tread under his initial resistance for the good of inter-cultural relations. He'd presumed everyone was drinking it but then realized everyone else was just savoring the aroma of it, holding it under their noses and sniffing luxuriously before passing it on. But when he tried to do the same, the two Hetari either side of him pushed the bowl up to his lips and made motions encouraging him to drink. They were both muscular warriors and although they were friendly to him, they were also very adamant he should do as he was told. When Daniel darted a glance at Jack, seeking his advice, Jack wouldn't meet his eye. He felt abandoned. Jack was obviously leaving him to sink or swim in this company. No, Jack was obviously trusting to his own good judgment to know the best way not to offend his hosts. He was an anthropologist after all…

He'd drunk and then at their urging to take another sip, drunk deeper. They'd nodded at him in satisfaction then passed the bowl on around. The red juice tasted sweet and bitter at the same time, sweet on the surface but with an adder bite underneath. The thirty-year old single malt General Hammond had shared out in his office after they'd saved the world had carried less of a kick. After three circuits of the bowl, Daniel's head was swimming, he was struggling to stay awake and struggling harder to keep up with the discussion.

The jaguar and the snake were mentioned frequently; he'd gotten that much. Described as guardians to the gateway which would serve both the good and the bad dreamers, whoever summoned them the most strongly. And there was a lot of talk about dreams, most of which Daniel couldn't really make any sense of. A lot of fairly incomprehensible talk about the danger in being in the dreamstate when a 'bad dreamer' was close at hand. How there were always bad dreamers. The good dreamers must be vigilant to protect the one who was 'open'. At least he thought it was 'open'. It might mean 'exposed' or 'made vulnerable'. It also seemed to mean 'sleeping' so there was a chance he'd got that wrong. Actually, yes, in that context it must mean the 'sleeper' which didn't make a lot more sense but what the hell…And then they talked about the perfect fusion when two dreamers could share a dream. How this could only happen if the 'Anhaya' took place. Something about seven nights and seven dreams and each one more dangerous than the last. How the bad dreamer could steal the sleeper and take him to the…underworld? Something that sounded like 'underworld'. Possibly 'hell', he wasn't really sure. More about the 'sleeper'; much danger to the sleeper yet also much joy if all went as it should. How the good dreamer must guard against the bad dreamer at all times or the sleeper would be stolen from him.

Jack saying, "But none of it's real, right? It doesn't really happen?"

How the hell could Jack be following this so much better than he was when Daniel was the linguist? If Daniel was getting two words in ten, Jack was getting zero, so how come he was the one asking intelligent questions and nodding thoughtfully at what seemed to be all the right moments? Something was seriously screwed-up here.

Daniel stole a quick look at his hand, just in case Machello's machine had done a body swap on them again. But no, that was definitely his hand, his bony wrist with the watchstrap that was too long for it. 

The hot spicy scent of the red juice made him realize the bowl was being proffered again. He took it as the Hetari each side of him made motions to him to drink. He drank obediently, gaze fixed on Chief Ankana as he waited for an answer to Jack's question. It occurred to him that if Jack hadn't been there he would have felt a little odd about being in a wigwam with a bunch of old men and semi-naked warriors all of whom seemed intent on getting him as drunk as possible.

Chief Ankana was murmuring something and Daniel frowned in concentration. He had a feeling this was important and he should be taking it in.

"…Real in the spirit realm…real in the land of dreams…the sleeper could be trapped there forever if the good dreamer cannot rescue him in time…the bad dreamer could capture him for all eternity…"

"Then it's too big a risk." Jack automatically savored the aroma of the bowl before passing it on as though it was something he'd been doing for years. "He – the Sleeper could end up in hell in the spirit realm and in a coma in the physical realm."

And now Jack was talking about 'spirit realms' and 'physical realms' like they were the kind of things he discussed all the time? And how had he managed to answer the man in English when there was no way he could have understood anything Ankana had just said in Hetari. What was going on here?

"…yet if perfect fusion does take place and Anhaya is achieved the rewards will be great – for the sleeper as well as our people…"

"I can't take that kind of a chance with his life."

"Then all our people will wither as the corn upon the stalk in the days of too much sun. The bad dreamer will win. We shall all be carried into the underworld with him. Even now he unlocks the gateway, soon the path will be open to him. He can and will destroy us. Unless you help."

There was a long silence in which Daniel found the bowl was back with him again. He looked at the warrior next to him pleadingly. "I'm so drunk already. Please, I'm not going to be able to stay awake. I'm never going to be able to walk back to my…" The man was implacable, face stern as he pushed the bowl into Daniel's hands. Daniel drank, trying to take just a small sip this time, but the warrior pushed the bowl up, tilting it down his throat and forcing Daniel to drain the last dregs.

The effect was immediate. He slumped against the man who had just force-fed him the red juice; his head lolling on the man's bare shoulder. He expected the warrior to shake him off angrily, but the man only nodded in satisfaction and passed on the empty bowl to the next warrior.

Ankana was speaking again and even with his head resting on the shoulder of a warrior to whom he hadn't been introduced, Daniel could understand him much better now. He wondered if there was something in that red juice which sharpened the brain. Perhaps that was why Jack was so way ahead of him on this trip: he'd spent hours and hours pow-wowing with Ankana while Daniel had been forced to wander around the village casting envious glances at the wigwam to which only 'leaders' were invited. Perhaps Jack had already been through the getting drunk bit and knew it was harmless. That would explain why he'd just sat there and let these people get his teammate paralytic right in front of him. 

Daniel had often wished Jack would stop being so damned over-protective; acting like Daniel was a child who wasn't safe to let out by himself. The way both Teal'c and Jack had acted over that business with Ke'ra had been downright embarrassing. Not wanting him left alone in a room with a five foot six ninety five pound woman in case she hurt him in some way. How old did they think he was anyway? Just because one dangerous female had raped him the first chance she'd got, it didn't mean every woman they met was going to do the same thing…Daniel realized he'd sort of lost his chain of thought there. That was right. He'd been thinking that even though he didn't like it when Jack pulled all that protective crap he'd still feel a bit bereft if Jack seemed to have given up protecting him completely. Even though he was so drunk he couldn't even get his head off this guy's shoulder and was slumped against him like a sack of potatoes, Daniel still felt safe because Jack was also in the room with him and there were some things Jack just wouldn't let people do to him, however incapacitated by alcohol Daniel might happen to be.

"It is because of the bounty you will reap that you hesitate, O'Neill. But you should not fear. You are not acting selfishly."

"I might be. It's in my interests to get what our world wants – which is some of your naqadah, and you'll only give us that if I help you out with this 'dream-fusing' business."

"This is so, but it is more than that. We have shown you what the Sleeper desires. We have shown you what he dreams. You can achieve Anhaya with him. You can meld your mind with his. You could achieve perfect joy. Would you deny the Sleeper this joy simply because you are unwilling to grant it to yourself?"

"Why can't I tell him?"

"The only hope for my people is if he realizes the truth. At the moment the door is locked, but it is not barred. If he adds resistance to denial the door will never be opened. You will lose him to his guilt, shame, and denial. He must perceive the truth, O'Neill. He must feel it. He cannot be told it."

Daniel didn't even find it strange now that Chief Ankana was speaking in Hetari and Jack was speaking in English and even though Jack didn't understand a word of Hetari and Ankana didn't understand a word of English, they were still holding a perfectly normal conversation. That was obviously just the way they did things around here. Jack had told him to go with the flow. He was flowing…

As he thought it, Daniel flowed off the warrior's shoulder to land with his face in his lap. The warrior rested a hand briefly on the back of his head and stroked his hair absently, as one might a child who was almost asleep and certainly not part of the conversation. Daniel got the distinct impression that if he'd started sucking through the deerskin at the man's loins no one would have batted an eye, including the warrior on whose lap he was now lying, they would just have been glad he'd found a way to keep himself occupied that didn't interfere with the grown-up talking going on above his head. If he had any part to play in this Ritual except as a bystander, it obviously wasn't in tendering his advice.

Ankana was speaking again, and this time Daniel could understand every word: "We need Anhaya to be achieved, O'Neill. The bad dreamer of our tribe is young and strong and has taken our good dreams. Only Anhaya will end his power. Only then can the good dreams come again. The serpent and the jaguar will soon serve only his will unless you can defeat him, and we have waited long for your coming. Within you lies the strength and love to achieve Anhaya and save our people. Help us. Please."

"Why don't you just kill him?"

"I have already explained it to you. That would make him master of the underworld. Even in death a spirit as strong and as evil as his could still control our dreams. No, it is in the realm of the dreamworld, not the physical world, that he must be defeated. Please, O'Neill? It is you we have chosen. Only you can do this. Please?"

Jack had never been good at saying no to people who said 'please' to him, something Daniel had learned to his own advantage. He knew Jack well enough to know Jack liked these people the way he liked the Nox. He wasn't going to be able to turn down an honest to goodness plea for help. 

Knowing what Jack's answer was bound to be, Daniel felt torn between pride and trepidation because whatever Jack was about to agree to do was obviously going to cost him. Daniel really didn't want any bad things happening to Jack. The man was his best friend. They'd been through a lot together. He wanted to tell him whatever this Anhaya business entailed, Daniel was happy to help in any way he could. Whoever or whatever the 'bad dreamer' might be Jack was going to have to go into battle against, Daniel was happy to come with him. Maybe Jack had to agree to do this, but he didn't have to agree to do it alone.

Unfortunately, speech was an impossibility at the moment. Lifting his head was also not an option. He could possibly manage rolling over to lie flat on his back while giggling idiotically, but that was about it for now. He managed to squirm around a little so he was at least looking at Jack instead of into the warrior's groin and so was in time to see the man sigh and nod. "Okay. I'll do it. But if anything happens to…" He shook his head. "I won't let anything happen to him. Right? It's up to me."

Ankana smiled in obvious relief and rested a hand on Jack's shoulder. "You are stronger than you know, my friend. You will defeat the bad dreamer. You will save the sleeper. And the reward for both of you will be great." Ankana seemed to focus on Daniel for the first time as though he had been irrelevant before but was important now. Daniel felt a little uncomfortable under the old man's gimlet gaze. Ankana seemed to be looking not just at him, but into him, seeing into his thoughts, hopes, fears. Dreams. Jack had said something about his dreams, hadn't he? Did Ankana know what Daniel didn't? Know what those damned dreams were that gave him that strange sensation of pleasure and loss every time he woke up. Like he'd found paradise but lost it again and wouldn't be able to find his way back there in daylight until he fully understood what he couldn't even remember.

Ankana nodded to the warriors each side of Daniel, his voice brisk: "Prepare him."

***

Daniel really wasn't sure how he felt about being stripped and laid out on a wolf-skin rug in front of a whole bunch of men he didn't really know. Well, 'stripped' was really too violent a verb. They'd removed him from his clothes the way you undressed a baby, trying to encourage him to lift an arm or flex a foot to make their lives easier, but if he couldn't or wouldn't cooperate, gently but firmly easing the boot from his foot, the jacket from his back, pulling his t-shirt off over his head, then tugging his pants down with quiet determination. It was lucky he was as drunk as he was because the shame was at least diluted by drowsy confusion, but every now and then the humiliation of his position would still send him a stabbing little reminder that even penetrated the alcohol fogging his brain.

Jack hadn't helped to undress him, but he hadn't stopped them either. He'd just watched from the edge of the circle with Ankana, gaze offering what Daniel thought might be reassurance, but without his own glasses and with the alcohol blurring everything he wasn't too sure. He thought Jack hadn't looked very happy about Daniel being stripped naked but there had been no objection raised, no move to help as his alcohol-incapacitated teammate was carried to the center of the circle and reduced to his birthday suit by half a dozen muscular braves. When his boxer shorts were pulled down, Daniel did utter strangled protest, shooting Jack a begging look as he did so. Whatever was going to happen next he just knew he wasn't going to like it and he didn't understand why Jack wasn't stopping it. Jack did the same as he had when Daniel had been made to drink the juice, deliberately looking away so as not to make eye contact.

Daniel had never felt so abandoned in his life. If he'd been able to make any noise louder than a whimper he would have yelled for Teal'c and Sam to come and rescue him. He marshaled his drunken energies into giving Jack a look of reproach, but Jack was still not looking at him, clearly not wanting to read the accusation in his naked teammate's gaze.

The man was murmuring something to Ankana which Daniel strained his ears to hear:

"…really necessary, is it?"

"I told you O'Neill. We can create a circle of protection around the sleeper, but he must remain within it…"

"It's just – he really isn't enjoying this, and no one is even telling him why they're…"

"Do you want him to be happy or do you want him to be safe…?"

"You didn't tell me he was going to have to…"

With an effort Daniel managed to turn his head and saw a number of bowls and candles laid out around him in a rectangle. He felt like a sacrifice on an altar. The older men were chanting now, eyes closed, swaying a little as they did so, Ankana nodding in time to their soft call. One of the warriors went to the bowl at the corner nearest him and dipped a cloth into it. Three others did the same with the bowls at their corners, and then warm water was being brushed across Daniel's limbs. 

He wondered why they were washing him. Because they were going to stick a great big knife in his heart afterwards and the gods only wanted a clean offering? He darted another look at Jack, mutely pleading for an explanation or at least a word of reassurance.

It's okay, Daniel. They won't hurt you. They're just helping to protect you against the bad dreamer.

The words made him feel so much better it was a full minute before he realized Jack hadn't spoken aloud, that the words had sounded only in his mind. He gasped in astonishment, and then gasped again as one of the braves gently wiped a wet cloth over his genitals, not just because it was an invasion of his privacy he hadn't counted on, but because he was sure the same thing had happened in his dream.

Had he been dreaming of this? Had his dreams been prophetic? No, he was sure they'd been filled with yearning, and he was damned sure he'd never yearned to be stripped naked and given a…rug-bath by a bunch of transplanted enemies of the Navajo.

"Jack…?" The confused murmur made them both wince. Daniel was embarrassed by the way he sounded so desperate for reassurance while Jack was clearly suffering terrible pangs of guilt at allowing this to be done to him.

Ankana fixed Daniel with a stern look. "The body counts for nothing. Rise above your body. There is no shame in this ritual except the shame you bring to it. Let it go."

Daniel tried to articulate 'that's easy for you to say – you're not the one who's naked.' But the words wouldn't come. 

The four braves cleansing him, picked him up and turned him onto his front. Water was trickled down his spine and he giggled as it tickled him. The rug was very warm against his chest and if these people would just stop washing him he could curl up on it and go to sleep. In fact the demands of sleep were getting so insistent now that he might have to go to sleep even if they kept on washing him… Two braves started from the back of his neck while two others began at his feet and worked up to meet them; wet cloths leaving a slick warm trail up the backs of his legs to his thighs and then to his buttocks. While two warriors continued to wipe away all traces of grime and sweat from his back, the other two squeezed warm water at the base of his spine, letting it trickle tantalizingly down the cleft of his ass. Again, something from his dream flickered in his consciousness. Being washed in just that place by someone… A good someone. And the washing felt good in the dream. If he was honest it felt pretty good here too. The warm cloth slipped between his butt cheeks until it reached his balls, they were wiped carefully just as his cock had been earlier, the action sending vague tinglings of arousal through his body. Daniel decided there was a lot to be said for just going with the flow. 

When the washing stopped he was almost sorry. He turned his head to the side so he could see what was happening, resting his face on his left arm. The younger warriors were swapping places with the older men, the braves continuing the chanting, while the elders knelt around him. He saw their gnarled fingers dip into the bowls beside him, and then they were smearing some kind of paint across his body, working with fixed concentration as they drew what felt like circles and lines across his naked skin.

He was being decorated like a totem or a brave. That suggested he had some ordeal ahead of him, something he was being given symbols of protection to help him survive. Shouldn't it be Jack who was having the paint job? Jack was the one who was going to have to do battle with the 'bad dreamer', whoever the bad dreamer might be. Daniel gave himself a mental shake, because this was all getting way too Twin Peaks, and he was probably dreaming it anyway. 

Of course! This was a dream. That was actually the only explanation which made any sense: he'd fallen asleep waiting for Jack to come and fetch him for the Ritual. Jack hadn’t come to fetch him because he wasn't needed at the Ritual, so Daniel's subconscious was making this up out of half-remembered Native American ceremonies. And, of course, that explained why he was naked in front of all these people, as being naked in front of a whole bunch of people was something else that – thankfully – only happened in dreams. It was usually to do with inadequacy, wasn't it? So perhaps this was because he hadn't been invited to the Ritual? Yes, that all made perfect sense. It was a slightly perverted dream, if he was honest; some rather disturbing homoerotic undercurrents in the way he was so helpless and at the mercy of those muscular braves making free with his body. But the thing about Jack just sitting there and letting them undress him and wash him and smear paint all over him made a lot more sense if he was dreaming. Yes, definitely, a dream.

Daniel decided it wasn't even a particularly bad dream; he'd had a lot worse; and as that chanting was very soothing and even the sensation of having gnarled old men's fingers smearing paint across his body was sort of relaxing as well once he'd gotten used to it, he decided he might just as well go to sleep in his dream the same way he'd obviously gone to sleep in their teepee while he was waiting for Jack.

Daniel closed his eyes and slept.

***

He awoke in absolute darkness but knew at once he was in the teepee he was temporarily sharing with Jack. He also knew he was naked and lying on top of his sleeping bag, but it was the lack of moonlight which made him realize he wasn't really awake. That he'd found the dreamplace he loved so much. He felt a tingling of excitement course through him. It was always dark here. Not like the night was dark or an unlit room was dark. Absolute blackness. Absolute safety. He could do anything he liked in this world and no one could see him do it. Or who he was doing it with. Even though Jack was asleep a few feet from him, Jack couldn't hear or see anything that happened in this place. Nothing bad could ever find Daniel here including his best friend's horror or revulsion. This was where the good dreamer came to visit him. 

Daniel gave a little gasp of excitement as he heard the footsteps on the floor of the teepee, soft beaten earth in which bare toes left faint tracks, delicate as shell folds. He'd gasped like that earlier when people had been… No, it was fading. Everything always did fade when he was in the dreamplace. He existed only in and for the moment here. But it was always such a wonderful moment. He suspected that this time it would be even better.

The man was standing over him now. Daniel knew it. He also knew the man was naked, just like him. He always kept his eyes closed; even though the darkness covered everything he liked to feel extra safe. He could feel the anticipatory trembling in his limbs become more obvious, and he knew the other man was aware of it, was aware of everything about him, knew him as intimately as he knew himself. For some reason, here it wasn't frightening to be known so completely. It was pleasurable and just added to the feeling of safety. The good dreamer bent and kissed him, dry lips, so familiar to him now, brushing across his own. And there was the scent he loved so much and missed so desperately when he blundered back towards waking, a mixture of male sweat and arousal, old aftershave, soap, gun oil, and skin which was always warm to the touch. He loved that scent. It was like coming home to him. He pressed against it blindly, and there was that hard, muscular body against his, a soft brushing of chest hair across his own bare skin. Another kiss, tender yet passionate. Daniel opened his mouth at once, as eager to feel that tongue exploring him as he was to feel those familiar fingers stroking soft caresses across his naked body.

The good dreamer was never in a hurry. He had spent a dozen dreams just on different ways of kissing. Touching had taken a dozen more. Daniel's only fear was that they might never progress beyond this point. That the man would never bring him to climax, only tantalize him with his caresses. He was dimly aware that he had never wanted a man to touch him like this, would have flinched from a man's tongue inside his mouth, a man's hands so gently stroking his ribs like this, but that was in the waking world. In the dream place gender didn't matter. The one who came to him was the one he loved, and Daniel knew him by the sound of his breathing, the scent of his skin, the touch of his fingers, the soft caress of his lips. He knew this man loved him and cared for him and would never let harm come to him, and Daniel felt exactly the same way, would have died for this man in an instant to keep him safe. He didn't need to see him to know that everything he had ever needed was right here with him now.

The man was kissing him, teasing him with his lips, little nibbles beneath Daniel's jaw. Daniel arched his back, pushing up against the other's lean strength in excitement. There were those fingers furrowing a path through his hair, then tightening to hold him still. Teeth brushed his throat, paused, hot breath teasing his skin and Daniel willed the other to bite; he so wanted him to bite. The teeth closed, and he moaned in ecstasy, surging up again wanting his groin to rub against the other man's, wanted this proof that the good dreamer was as aroused as he was.

The man stroked a finger up the inside of his thigh, making Daniel shiver with excitement. Daniel was being kissed all over now, warm lips caressing his nipples, a warm tongue licking each in turn to aching nubs, the licking and kissing continued down his ribcage and then moving back up his body in a tantalizing trail. The good dreamer's timing was impeccable. As that callused right hand began to fondle his balls Daniel gasped his surprise into a mouth already open in readiness to receive it.

The man kissed him with a new fierceness, and Daniel responded at once, lunging up to push himself against that fondling hand, that open mouth. His tongue was sucked into the other man's mouth as the skillful fingers played with his balls, squeezing them very gently, rubbing them together, then furrowing a finger between them to tease them apart. The fingers slipped lower, fondling the crack of his ass, easing his buttocks apart and very lightly stroking his opening. Daniel was so turned on he could barely think but responded by lunging up again and wrapping his tongue around the other's, kissing him back breathlessly, trying to let him know that all of this touching was wonderful and completely acceptable to him. When the hand closed around his cock he almost came then and there. This was new. The good dreamer had never done this before. Daniel so hoped he wouldn't stop, he hoped he would…

The man began to massage his cock, gently at first, sliding a thumb up the length of it, gently fondling the tip, rolling it around his hand, squeezing it gently, and then wrapping his hand around it and pulling up the length of Daniel's cock, an incredible sensation that made Daniel groan with longing. The man leaned forward, one hand clasped to the back of Daniel's head, gently lowering him back onto the sleeping bag, but keeping their mouths brushing against each other as he did so while maintaining that steady stroking of Daniel's cock. Daniel was bucking eagerly, wanting more, pleasure already beginning to overwhelm him. The good dreamer kept his left hand at the back of Daniel's head, cushioning his skull so that when Daniel jerked his head back in response to the rhythmic pumping of his cock, he didn't hurt himself. The man kissed Daniel harder, tongue pushing deep into Daniel's mouth while Daniel's hips jerked in ecstasy and the skillful hand pumped him faster and faster.

Daniel moved urgently against the hand bringing him to climax, groaning with the sensation of it, the pleasure almost too much to bear. He was gasping and moaning now, pressing up against that body on top of his, jerking his hips frantically in time to that wonderful pumping…and then the climax overwhelmed him, wave after wave of pleasure, which left him convulsing soundlessly as he poured himself out onto the other man's fingers.

He might have blacked out for a minute because when he next became aware of the protective blackness, the good dreamer was stroking his sweat-dampened hair back from his forehead, touch gentle and calming. Daniel's breathing slowed from ragged gasps to a steadier rhythm, still feeling the aftershocks of that orgasm rippling through him. The man had only given him a hand-job, and yet nothing had ever felt quite so wonderful. Daniel pressed upwards, needing to bury his face in that familiar neck again, feel the stubble rasp faintly against his cheek, drink in the scents of the man he loved. He wrapped his arms around him, wanting to keep him here, keep him here with him forever, wanting them to stay in this wonderful darkness together where no one could hurt them or judge them, where there was no shame and no awkwardness, only pleasure and love. He felt knuckles trail lightly up the side of his face, a kiss was planted on the top of his head, and then his arms were gently unwound from the other's body and he was eased back down onto the sleeping bag.

Someone whispered, "Go to sleep, Daniel." He felt that dry mouth gently kiss his eyelids, and then the good dreamer was gone. He was alone in the comforting darkness once more.

He rolled over, aware of lingering faint tingles from his climax, thighs wet with his own come, still feeling dabs of delicious heat on his body where those lips had brushed against his skin. He was still smiling as he drifted off to sleep.

***

Jack sat in the doorway of the teepee and sighed. There was moonlight slanting through the flap to bathe Daniel in chill blue light. He looked beautiful but so damned ghostly, like he'd already been sucked into the spirit world. 

When he'd first arrived on this world he'd seen Ankana looking between them like he already knew them. The chief had been impatient to speak to Jack alone, waving a dismissive hand at Daniel and sending him off to look at the totem pole or something. Jack had been so busy thinking about the hurt surprise in Daniel's eyes it had taken him a moment to realize Ankana knew about the dreams.

"Wait a minute…" Jack had collected himself with difficulty as Ankana waved him to a place at the side of the wolfskin rug in his wigwam. "You can understand me? But I'm speaking English. And how the hell can I understand you?"

"I can see the pictures in your mind, and you can see the pictures in mine because I am allowing you to do so. Your mind translates those pictures into words you can understand. It is a gift of our people. A gift you must not speak of. It is something your people would misuse…"

Jack thought of remote viewers, those semi-psychics the US Military had trained to look into the heart of enemy darkness. You met up with them in psychiatric hospitals sometimes, still gibbering from the shock of what they'd seen. If Daniel got a sniff of this Hetari ability he'd want someone to teach it to him, thinking it would give him a way to reach the minds of every race they encountered through the Stargate, a way to show the bad guys the error of their ways. He would probably learn it too. Jack had vivid memories of Daniel seeming lost to him in a whole new way on Kheb. The guy he knew gone and this person with magical powers left in his place. Daniel fire-raiser Jackson: a man who could turn a machinegun with a thought. And he couldn't trust even General Hammond either, that business with the trinium had proven that. Orders came down from above that had NID fingerprints all over them. Definitely not something Jack felt any desire to share.

"Yes, we probably would. Now what was that you said about my dreams being dangerous to your tribe?"

"The dreams you share." Ankana nodded out of the wigwam to where Daniel was disconsolately circling the totem pole, sending wistful looks in their direction because he knew something cultural was being exchanged and he wasn't there to hear it. He looked like a kid who'd just had a favorite toy taken away from him, and Jack felt a protective spasm close around his heart.

"Share?" he said it carefully.

Ankana looked at him in exasperation. "I know everything you know, O'Neill. I know you dream of Daniel. I know Daniel dreams of you. I know you meet in the dream-place every night."

Jack gaped at him. "What? Wait – Daniel dreams it too? The same dream? The same…" He broke off. The same kissing, touching, yearning, longing?

"Yes." Ankana sounded impatient with his stupidity. "The same dream. You share it every night. He awaits you there, and you go to him in the dream place."

Jack blinked. "Cool."

Ankana glared at him. "No! It is dangerous."

Jack thought of all the delicious touching and nibbling he'd done the night before. And on all the nights before that. So he hadn't just dreamed of touching Daniel, he had touched Daniel? Touched Daniel's dream in any case. Daniel had been there too. Daniel had responded. Daniel had... Daniel loved him. My God, the boy loved him too…

Ankana's hand clamped on his shoulder like a vice made him wince. "Ow. What?"

"Weren't you listening? You have upset the balance. You are causing chaos in the spirit world. Already you have given Tehuani great power."

"We've done…what? How? Who or what is Tehuani anyway?"

"Tehuani is the shaman of our tribe. He is a bad dreamer. He thrives on bad dreams. He tries to create them, to infiltrate them, to shape them. He is a very dangerous man, and this upset in the spirit realm has fed his power. He knows of you. He is seeking you. He will find you."

"What?" Jack stared at him blankly and then got to his feet. "Okay, I got about one word in ten of that, but I gather the gist is that if we hang around here we're going to do some more damage, right? That's easily solved. I'll pull my team out, get General Hammond to send a different SG unit."

"It is too late for that."

"How can it be too late?" Jack was already shouldering his MP-5 in preparation for departure. "We only just got here."

"But you have been sharing dreams with the Sleeper for many weeks."

"The Sleeper? You mean – Daniel?"

"Yes! The boy is the sleeper. You are the good dreamer. Tehuani is the bad dreamer. Because of you the spirit world is in chaos."

"You already said that and to be honest with you I didn't get it the first time."

"Because of you Tehuani can drag all of us into the underworld."

"Nope, you have definitely lost me now."

Ankana threw up his hands in annoyance. "You are not a fool, O'Neill, even if you choose to act like one. This information is unwelcome to you but it is not beyond your understanding. When two dreamers meet in the dream world but not in the physical world, they cause disruption in the realm of the spirits. The balance is upset; they love and they join and yet they remain separate. This contradiction cannot exist. And yet it does exist and its existence upsets the spirit world. Do you understand?"

Jack thought about claiming ignorance but then remembered the man could read his mind. He sighed. "Yes. Got you."

"When the spirit world is upset, great power is unleashed, power for good and for evil. For some time now the power of Tehuani has been growing. We have all sensed it yet been unable to stop it…"

As Ankana went on about signs and portents and the spread of nightmares among the Hetari people, Jack remembered Kheb again, the sky boiling, thunder and lightning, unstoppable forces simmering in readiness for savage release. He'd known it was a bad thing he was doing, really, an invasion of Daniel's privacy, but he'd told himself it was something he had no control over. It wasn't his fault if he was having wet dream after wet dream about the teammate who had so gradually and imperceptibly become the one he loved. His dream lover indeed if Daniel had been having the same dream. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Simultaneously exultant and ashamed. 

He would never in a million years have leant across while Daniel was sleeping next to him on a mission and kissed his skin, or run his fingers through his hair. When Daniel had bad dreams – which he did frequently – or wet dreams – which he had a lot less frequently – when they were on missions, Jack tried to soothe him out of the first and pointedly ignored the second. If Daniel woke up screaming, he made sure he was there to give him a reassuring pat on the shoulder or to rub his back until he calmed down. If Daniel woke up gasping his late wife's name with an entirely different inflection then Jack made damned sure he appeared to be asleep, so fast asleep that when an embarrassed Daniel quietly called his name to see if he could possibly have overhead, Jack had trained himself to never even twitch. What he didn't do was reach across to kiss and lick every inch of his teammate's smooth warm skin while encouraging him to sob his passion into his neck. Except now he had. If what Ankana said was true then he had been molesting Daniel in his sleep for weeks. With Daniel's agreement, perhaps, but the fact remained that he remembered it and Daniel didn't which…

That was a point. Why didn't Daniel remember it?

"Because he will not permit himself to do so." Ankana said it in disapproval.

"Why not?"

"Because he will not admit to himself that you are the man he loves. That you…"

Are the man of his dreams. Jack winced. "Too big a let down, eh? Danny was hoping for Harrison Ford?"

"You are his friend, O'Neill. You are all he has now. He thinks that to love you would be to lose you. Therefore he will not admit his true feelings even to himself, but they are so strong they break out in the realm of the unconscious. You will destroy us all unless you can achieve Anhaya."

"I'm guessing that has something to do with Daniel waking up, throwing his arms around my neck, and telling me he loves me?"

Ankana looked at him with the first glimmer of humor. "That would be a reasonable definition, O'Neill, yes."

Jack had looked out at Daniel, the anthropologist making notes as he circled the totem pole while still gazing longingly back at the wigwam where the discussion was going on. A child who'd had his favorite toy confiscated and was gradually losing all hope of ever getting it back. Jack sighed. "Don't hold your breath that's going to happen any time soon…"

Now, sitting in the teepee gazing across at a sleeping Daniel, he sighed again. So beautiful. So in love with him. And so utterly oblivious of him as anything except a friend. He hadn't bought into what Ankana had told him, of course. As soon as the chief had made it clear that there was a bad guy out there who was going to be picking up their trail any minute, who could effectively gatecrash their dream and join the party, Jack had been determined to get Daniel the hell off this world. Daniel was naked, voluntarily blind, and so damned vulnerable in the dream place. No way was some bad witch doctor going to be allowed to stroll into their dream and start turning it into a nightmare. Jack had already been two words into "We are leaving!" when Ankana had insisted it was too late now. Wherever they went, Tehuani would find them.

"I don't buy that." Jack insisted.

"As long as you continue to dream, he draws power from the fractured spirit realm."

"I don't buy that either."

That was when Ankana had pretty much dragged him across the village to show him the mangrove swamp. In the middle of a forest of silver birch trees. A place like something out of Grimm's Fairy Tales – the Appalachian version. Croaking frogs, the hiss of snakes, and something that looked suspiciously like a crocodile watching them from underneath the water.

"Each night as you dream it spreads further. Soon it will engulf us all. Tehuani will take us all into the underworld with the power you have given him. The combat has already begun, O'Neill. You and the bad dreamer must do battle for the soul of our tribe or else we are all lost…"

There was nothing like being three hours into a mission and being told you'd already fucked up everything for everyone because you had the hots for your teammate. It was almost Biblical, O'Neill thought glumly as he stared at the mangrove swamps. This was what having lustful thoughts for your best friend would do and while you thought you were keeping it all a deep dark secret, an entire tribe was having to live with the physical consequences of your guilty passion. And what's more another guy you'd never met was getting closer and closer to getting an eyeful of what you and your dream-mate got up to after hours.

That was about the time Jack had realized he really wasn't going to like this mission.

He looked across at Daniel again. Daniel was restless, stirring uneasily in his sleep. Jack reached across and pulled the blanket up higher over Daniel's torso. He'd tasted every inch of that skin in his dreams, knew intimately how it felt when you stroked your fingers across that silky heat, licked it, nibbled it, kissed it. Knew how Daniel's nipples felt when they woke to hardness beneath his tongue… But Daniel didn't know any of that. Jack was just 'Jack' to Daniel. Good old Jack. Crabby old Jack. Says-mean-things-to-me-before-he-thinks, old Jack. Not the man he loved. Daniel didn't think there was a man he loved. Somewhere along the line, Jack's mission briefing had been given a serious rewrite, but it wasn't something he could exactly share with his teammates. That his new task was now to find a way to make Daniel realize Jack O'Neill truly was the man of his dreams…

***

When he awoke the next morning Daniel realized that for once he had remembered his dream. Some weird stuff about going to see the Ritual and people getting him drunk and taking his clothes off then smearing paint all over him. While Jack sat there and watched. Yeah, right. That made perfect sense.

He rolled onto his left side and saw that Jack was also awake, lying on his right side, looking at Daniel.

"What time is it?" Daniel asked.

"Early. About an hour after dawn."

Daniel wished for some coffee, but that would involve making up a fire, which would involve getting wood, going down to the creek to get some water and…

"Here you go." He looked up to find a steaming mug of coffee being put into his hand. Jack shrugged at his surprise. "It's just self-defense, Daniel. You're pretty unspeakable until you get your caffeine."

"Thanks. And if this is my reward I must remember to be even more unspeakable in future." He felt oddly moved by that small act of kindness on Jack's part. Another ten minutes in bed was a wonderful luxury. He took a sip and it was exactly the way he liked it, strong but not bitter. Perfect. Sometimes he and Jack knew each other so well it was scary.

Jack was wearing only his pants, Daniel noticed. It was odd seeing Jack bare-chested and barefoot. He looked at once more vulnerable and more natural. Jack of the Jungle. Daniel grinned at the thought.

"What's so funny?"

He looked across in time to see Jack get back into his sleeping bag. Thank goodness for that. Sometimes Jack was an unbearably early bird, but it seemed as though he was going to be sane about it today and let them get up at a respectable time.

"Had this really weird dream."

"Dream?"

He wondered why Jack looked so tense. Daniel blinked at him a little nonplussed. "Yes. It was about the Ritual business – you know the native custom I wasn't allowed to witness and you were."

"Not that you mind or anything," Jack observed, deadpan.

"Couldn't be more okay about it," Daniel returned airily. "After all I'm a trained anthropologist and you're…not, so it makes perfect sense that you get to see it, and I don't. What happened anyway?"

"Tell me what happened in your dream?" Jack countered.

Daniel darted him a sideways look. Jack was obviously in one of those annoying impossible-to-read moods. Daniel often wanted to give him a swift kick when he was like that. Taking refuge in another sip of coffee and reminding himself as he did so that Jack did also have his good points, Daniel told him about his dream.

"…and then I fell asleep."

"Buck naked on a wolf-skin rug with a whole bunch of Hetari painting pretty pictures on you?"

"Actually I think they were symbols of protection or something."

"Oh well that's all right then. As long as they weren't doing anything weird. Where was I when all this was going on, anyway? Turning into a German Shepherd or doing a fan dance?"

"Watching."

"Oh, just call me CO of the century."

"You did reassure me they weren't going to hurt me, that they were just trying to protect me."

"That was nice of me."

"Telepathically. Actually – that must have been how you were communicating with Chief Ankana as well." Daniel frowned. "Incidentally, Jack, how do you communicate with Ankana?"

"Sign language." Jack shrugged as he got out of the sleeping bag and headed for the door. "Have to take a leak."

"Sign language?"

Jack glanced back at him. "Yes, sign language, like I told you yesterday."

"But that was in the…" Daniel stared at the flapping entrance to the teepee in confusion, "…dream." 

***

Daniel walked through the village, brow creased into a frown of concentration as he tried to make sense of what was and wasn't real. As soon as Jack had left him alone, Daniel had been looking for traces of paint on his skin. There hadn't been any, of course. Which made sense. The only thing that made sense was Daniel having dreamed about that Ritual. But the other dreams, the ones he'd been having for a few months now, the ones he was always so eager to get back to even though he could never remember them, they'd started back on Earth. So they couldn't have anything to do with the possibly weird things happening on this planet. Could they?

And the only weird thing really going on here was Jack being a better anthropologist than Daniel was, which wasn't too serious. So, Daniel should probably stop worrying and concentrate on doing his job, which was finding out about the origins of these people and a little bit about their culture. Otherwise, when they got back to earth his report was going to be somewhat on the short side.

Actually Jack had been pretty twitchy since they'd got here. He kept starting conversations with Daniel and then stopping them again and he had spent hours inside that wigwam with Ankana. Daniel couldn't imagine what those two found to talk about. He'd tried talking to Ankana a number of times himself but without any luck so he obviously needed to try someone else, like the medicine man or healer, or whatever he was called in the Hetari culture.

Daniel cleared his throat outside Teal'c and Sam's teepee. "Um – knock, knock, guys?"

"You have a joke you're trying to tell, Daniel?"

He jumped and turned to see Jack standing right next to him. "Damn it, Jack, stop creeping up on me!"

"Just because I don't sound like a herd of elephants making their way to the watering hole like a certain person I could mention."

Daniel looked at Jack's feet and frowned. "You're not wearing your boots."

"I see those observational skills are improving though. Good catch."

Daniel refused to be diverted. "Why do you have bare feet?"

Jack shrugged. "You're the one who's always saying 'when in Rome'."

Daniel took a proper look at Jack and noticed that he was wearing his pants and his jacket but no t-shirt. Making it all the easier to see that Jack didn't have an ounce of surplus fat anywhere, which given the way the guy packed the food away, showed he must work pretty hard at turning it into muscle. Daniel didn't really have an ounce of surplus fat on him either, but that was because he was always skipping meals and subsisting on coffee not because he went for a run every morning before breakfast.

"You're not going to start sticking feathers in your hair and doing rain dances are you, Jack?"

The man shrugged. "Maybe. I'll let you know if the urge comes upon me."

Daniel belatedly remembered what he'd come here for. "Where are Sam and Teal'c anyway?"

"Gone."

"Gone?"

"Yes, Daniel, gone as in…gone." Jack sighed at Daniel's look of annoyance. "Had a call come through from General Hammond: SG-5 ran into some trouble. I said you and I could handle things here."

"Oh – right." It occurred to Daniel that he really did need to start finding something out about these people's culture because at the moment Jack was handling everything, and he wasn't handling anything. He darted the man a sideways look. "Don't suppose you happen to know who the medicine man around here is, do you?"

Jack's jaw tightened, but his face and voice were both expressionless. "A guy called Tehuani."

"Don't suppose you happen to know where I could find him?"

Jack took him by the arm and towed him a few steps over to the left. "See where the creek flows round in a bend. He lives on beyond there. Has his own personal mangrove swamp."

"Have you met him?"

"Sort of."

Jack was radiating the kind of body language that suggested he liked this Tehuani about as much as he liked finding termites in his foundations, but he wasn't saying a word about Daniel not going to talk to him, or taking care, or anything like that. Perhaps Ankana had been telling Jack he needed to stop being over-protective and to let Daniel fight his own battles? Which was a good thing, right? Right. Except…

Daniel realized he'd got used to Jack looking out for him and saying 'Daniel…' in that warning 'have you thought through all the possible dangers' way. Daniel had even used the 'Well, I'll just go off and do this by myself then, shall I?' ploy a few times on purpose, knowing perfectly well that Jack would never let him wander into trouble alone. He'd also got used to Jack hovering around anxiously if there was any possibility Daniel might get hurt. And now he was going to let Daniel just stroll off and talk to a medicine man he didn't like by himself? 

Daniel felt abandoned again. Again? The way he had in his dream. When those braves had started taking his clothes off and Jack hadn't stopped them. If it had been a dream. Of course it had been a dream. It had been way too weird to be real, but all the same…

"Jack?"

"What?"

"You wouldn't really let people get me drunk, strip me naked, then paint all over me, would you?"

Jack looked at him for a minute. "As a rule of thumb – probably not; but it would depend on why they were doing it. If they were doing it because they were a bunch of sex-starved truckers who wanted to have some fun with you, then no I wouldn't. If they were doing it to protect you, well then yes maybe I would. I'm not saying I'd like it but I might feel I didn't have any choice but to let them do it to keep you safe."

He'd definitely been looking for something less…equivocal. "Well, I wouldn't let anyone do that to you."

"Not even to protect me?"

"Well, how could it protect you anyway?"

"What if someone from the spirit realm had access to your subconscious hopes and fears and would use them to drag you down into hell? What if having protective signs painted all over you was the only way to stop him grabbing you when you fell asleep?"

Daniel decided things were getting much to strange for him to cope with on only one cup of coffee. He waved his hands. "Okay – enough philosophy, but, Jack, if Ankana is making you smoke anything or drink anything with him, you might want to think about cutting down." He took two paces away and then looked back over his shoulder to see if Jack was following. "You said 'Tehuani', right?"

"Right." 

No expression and no move to follow him either. Daniel guessed he really was on his own. Good. That was very good. Jack had finally learned to treat him like a grown-up. Excellent. He couldn't have been happier about it.

 

Standing with his bare toes clenching the earth hard enough to stop him from following Daniel, Jack said tautly. "I have to let him do this, right?"

Ankana nodded. "Yes."

"Remind me why again?"

"You know why."

"Look, I don't think I can go through with this. When you gave me the mission briefing you said I would be the one doing battle with the…bad dreamer. Me. Not Daniel."

"And so it is. But it is the sleeper whose dreams the bad dreamer tries to alter. It is the sleeper the bad dreamer must drag into the underworld – "

Jack held up a finger. "Whoa! Time out. This was not part of the deal."

"This was exactly the 'deal'."

"Well then I'm calling it off."

"You cannot. It is no longer possible. The ritual has begun. It can end only with Anhaya or with victory for the bad dreamer."

Jack gritted his teeth, looking around the birch wood for inspiration and finding none. "This is a guy with lots of…occult powers who wants to do all kinds of really unspeakable and degrading things to my teammate and I'm supposed to let Daniel trot over there and make friends without even giving him a warning?"

"It is better that he recognizes his enemy in the physical world so he will know him again in the spiritual world."

"I'm not sure I can go through with this. Daniel's been through enough weird shit already."

"The portal is open now. Tehuani will find him."

"Not if we leave this world."

"Yes, even then."

Jack put a hand up to his head. "So, you're saying if I don't go through with this, that son-of-a-bitch will still get into his dreams?"

Ankana looked at him. "You did."

"No, I didn't. I started dreaming about him, that's all. I didn't know we were having the same dream until we came here and you told me. And anyway, it isn't the same dream. I know that it's Daniel I'm kissing. He doesn't know the guy who's kissing him is me."

"Only because he will not let himself know it. He could say your name if he wanted to. He could open his eyes if he wanted to. He could let the moonlight into the darkness if he wanted to."

"Then he obviously isn't ready for it to be me. I'm not pushing him into something he doesn't want. To be honest I already feel a little… It was different before, Ankana. I went to sleep; I had an incredibly hot dream where I got to kiss Daniel all over. In the morning I woke up and all I knew was that I'd dreamt something really, really good. This is different."

"Why?"

"I didn't know what I was dreaming was also what he was dreaming."

"And so?"

"And so I'm…doing stuff to him now."

"You were 'doing stuff' to him before, O'Neill."

"But I didn't know I was doing it. Now I do. That's…abuse. Damnit, in Daniel's case, that's practically child molesting. I gave him a hand-job for crying out loud. I'd say that was kind of an invasion of his personal space, wouldn't you?"

"I know his shame and your guilt are Tehuani's greatest weapons against you. Your love will not kill him, O'Neill, but his shame might." 

Jack looked at the man in exasperation. "How?"

Ankana looked up at the sky whose pearly light was diffused by the drifting clouds. "You may go after him now, but walk slowly. He must be allowed to be a man. You have already kept him a child much too long."

***

Daniel felt like he'd wandered into some Appalachian folk myth. One moment it was all birch trees and birdsong with the sun pleasantly warm against his back, the next he was in someone else's nightmare. The mangrove swamps were so self-consciously sinister – all drifting mist and trailing creepers – he wondered they didn't come with a backing track of banjo music. 

As soon as he saw Tehuani he could see this was not the kind of guy whom Jack would like. The man radiated the same kind of power the Goa'uld did. The kind that kept other people scared. He looked like someone who was used to getting his own way. He also looked like someone who really didn't like Daniel. He might have been considered handsome with his strong profile and long black hair. He was only around Jack's age, Daniel estimated, but cruelty marred Tehuani's face. He looked like someone who had seen much suffering in his time and unlike Jack had enjoyed the view.

Tehuana had a wigwam like Ankana's but the front was open on his, and the effect was like staring into an apothecary's shop. As Daniel drew nearer he saw that there were things hanging from the roof, in clay jars on shelves, piled into every available piece of floor space and something foul-smelling boiling in what looked suspiciously like a witch's cauldron. This really was eye of newt and toe of frog territory. 

"What do you want?" the man's greeting was not encouraging. Nor was his expression. He had eyes like two burning coals and a strange scar on his forehead, like a sigil. It made Daniel think of Charles Manson. 

"To talk to you." Daniel tried to smile but his mouth didn't want to go through the motions. He felt an unaccountable hostility towards this man. Which was absurd, he reminded himself. He didn't know him. He shouldn't judge him on a few second's acquaintance.

"I don't speak to whores."

Daniel told himself he'd just translated that wrongly. He wasn't too sure about the language anyway. Definitely not 'whore' that last word. Not something friendly, perhaps, but not that.

Daniel tried another smile. "Well, that's a shame because I'd really like to hear a little bit about the history of your people, and they tell me you're the man who knows everything around here."

Tehuani made no attempt to hide the contempt in his dark eyes. He stirred the cauldron as he spoke, smoke rising up like the swamp mist. "Do you think I will respond to flattery?"

"Tough audience…" Daniel murmured. He really wished Jack had followed him this time. He could have done with the support. "I was just hoping to have a conversation with you. What's that in the cauldron?"

"Pig fat."

As he took a step closer, Daniel realized the man was telling the truth, the stench was unmistakable and none too pleasant. He put a hand up to his mouth. "Do you use it for healing?"

"You need some, Macu'?" Tehuani's gaze flickered over him lazily and Daniel suddenly realized what it looked and felt like when someone undressed you with his eyes. It really wasn't a pleasant sensation.

He tried to concentrate on what the man was saying. " 'Macu', that's Taino – what we used to call Arawak – it means, what does it mean?" Daniel put a hand up to his head. Big eyes. Well, not good, but better than 'whore' anyway.

"Your colonel being rough with you?" Tehuani picked something up out of one of the large clay pots at his feet. "You want him to grease you first? I'll grease you." He put his other hand into the cauldron, not flinching despite the way the liquid was bubbling at boiling point. His hand came out slick with liquid fat. He lifted the thing he held in his right hand and Daniel took two more steps forward before he realized what it was.

The polite word for it – the word he was going to use if any of this encounter found its way into his report – was 'fertility symbol', and it had clearly been carved from some dark native hardwood, possibly mahogany. But when a man held it in his lap so it jutted upwards from his loins while sliding his left hand over it in firm downward strokes so it was coated in dripping pig grease, all the time smiling at you viciously as if he wanted to rip you to pieces, Daniel felt the words 'honkin' big cock' were more appropriate.

Tehuani smiled at him contemptuously. "I'll grease you, good, Macu'. I'll grease you so hard and so deep they'll hear you screaming back on your own world."

Daniel backed up quickly. "You know I'm all for getting into native customs but I think just this once I'll pass."

He turned and hurried back down the path towards the rest of the settlement, Tehuani's raucous laughter echoing through the mangrove swamps triumphantly. Daniel knew the man had just humiliated him and that by running away from a childish threat he'd probably humiliated himself further. Sam, he was sure, would have told the guy exactly where he could shove that dick compensator and how hard, but all his instincts for self-preservation had told him to get the hell away from that guy fast, and he'd obeyed them before he'd even thought. 

Tehuani's mocking farewell reached him faintly through the swamp. "See you in your dreams, whoreboy."

"Yeah in your dreams, maybe," Daniel muttered but he still automatically increased his pace.

His nerves were still twanging as he reached the edge of the forest, more relieved than he liked to admit to leave the mangrove swamps behind and find himself back among beech, birch and pine trees again. The air seemed to be at least ten degrees warmer and the birdsong was soothing. He didn't remember hearing any birds in the swamp.

A hand closing on his arm made him jump ten feet straight into the air.

"Jesus, Jack!" He stared at the man in a mixture of anger and relief. He was pissed about Jack constantly scaring the shit out of him like that, but he couldn't deny he was very glad to see him again.

"You okay? Why were you running? Did he hurt you?"

"No – I…" Daniel winced in embarrassment. "He scared me a little. I'm just jittery at the moment."

"Scared you how? What did he do?"

Although Daniel was ashamed to admit it even to himself, there was a part of him very glad to see that protective anger and anxiety in Jack's brown eyes. And that same part of him really wished Teal'c was still around so he could tell him what Tehuani had said to him and then watch the Jaffa go and stomp that guy underfoot like a bug. Daniel shuffled his foot in embarrassment. "Well – he sort of waved a…fertility symbol under my nose and invited me to…sit on it."

"Fertility symbol?" Jack's confusion darkened into anger. "You mean a dildo?"

"Jack, it's no big deal. He just… What can I tell you? We didn't hit it off. He doesn't like me and he wasn't going to lower himself to talk to me. As far as he's concerned I'm just a…nigua."

"What's a 'nigua'?"

"A kind of flea." Daniel shrugged in resignation. "I guess this is just the trip where no one talks to me. How long do we have to stay here anyway?"

"Another six nights." 

"What? Why?"

Jack avoided his eye again. "If you attend the first ritual you have to attend the second one, and the next one is in a week, otherwise the cosmic balance gets all knocked out of shape."

"I didn't attend the first ritual...?" 

Daniel made it a question, but Jack ignored the upward inflection to shrug. "I did. And I'm not staying here all by myself so you're stuck here for the duration. Anyway, what's the problem? You usually love this cultural exchange stuff."

"People usually let me communicate with them, Jack. But Ankana treats me like I'm six, and their medicine man just called me a whore. I'm not making a lot of progress here."

"A whore? Why?"

Daniel shrugged. "I don't know. Because I share a teepee with you I suppose. You wandering around flashing your chest at people probably isn't helping."

"I'm just trying to get in touch with nature," Jack protested.

"Why?"

"Because true communion with Mother Nature is supposed to help keep the mind and body in a state of readiness to deal with the demons of the underworld who might otherwise infiltrate our dreams." Jack sighed wearily as he said it, as if this was something he was really really bored with, he'd heard it so many times.

Daniel just looked at him for a moment. Then he reached across and patted the man on the shoulder. "Okey-dokey. You do that then. I'm going to go and ask one of the Hetari women about their culture and history."

"Good luck."

The way Jack said it, Daniel just knew the man knew something he didn't, but he wasn't going to rise to the bait. He was going to be a good little anthropologist, and he was going to have something better to put in his report to General Hammond than 'You'll have to ask Jack about the Hetari because no one else on the whole damned planet would take me seriously.'

***

He woke to the dream-dark and the near-silent sound of bare feet making a soft indentation in the earth floor. There were so many things he wanted to say, to ask for; but if he spoke, he might shatter everything. This was perfect. Not seeing. Only hearing, touching, feeling, tasting, breathing in that familiar scent he loved so much.

Daniel inhaled, and there it was, there he was, the good dreamer. He closed his eyes quickly, just in time for the man to bend over him and kiss him gently on the eyelids. Then strong fingers were furrowing through his hair, playing with the short strands, holding his head still so the next kiss could find his lips. That warm mouth brushed tenderly against his and Daniel sighed in contentment. This was the dream he never wanted to wake up from. Part of him wanted to say 'Tonight, please, tonight, can we do everything?' Yet if he spoke the good dreamer might vanish so he kept silent. But in his mind he was begging for more touching, tasting and feeling than he'd ever had before. 

The good dreamer seemed to know what he wanted without needing to be told. The kisses were more passionate now. Although those dry lips were soft and warm, the kiss was insistent, a tongue tracing the inside of his lips before plunging forcefully into his mouth, demanding that he opened up to it. Daniel welcomed that tongue inside with a barely-muffled groan. And then something hard was pushing against the soft skin of his belly. It too was insistent, pushing at him as though asking for attention. He reached down, trying to feel what it was and closed his hand around the good dreamer's erect cock. When he rubbed his thumb curiously across the rounded tip, he realized it was weeping, and he could smell the bitter musty scent of precum. He was eager to taste it, but that would have been so…active, and besides his mouth was already full; the good dreamer's tongue probing forcefully, demanding to be sucked on. Daniel sucked, and his right hand began to gently stroke the cock he held, wrapping his fingers around it carefully the way the man had done with his erection in the last dream they'd shared. 

He began to pull, a little uncertain at first, letting the slippery shaft slide between his curled fingers, trying not to grip it too tightly but to hold it firmly enough the good dreamer could feel the agreeable friction of Daniel's hand against his sensitive cock.

The way the man groaned into Daniel's mouth and kissed him even more forcefully, not to mention the way the good dreamer's hips began to pump in time to the rhythm Daniel was creating, told him he was probably doing this right.

The cock was being pushed into the funnel of his hand now, jerked in harder and harder while he pulled against it, a perfect rhythm of give and take. The good dreamer pulled his tongue from Daniel mouth, kissed him hard on the lips then began to nip and suck at the soft skin of Daniel's throat, his mouth warm and determined, groaning louder as he jerked his hips faster into the welcoming friction of Daniel's hand.

Daniel was pumping faster and faster now, barely managing to keep up with the good dreamer's eager thrusts, but somehow he matched the rhythm, kept the stroke going until… 

The good dreamer convulsed, teeth closing on Daniel's throat to stifle a scream as hot fluid spurted across Daniel's hand. Daniel smiled as he arched his back against the other man's weight; proud to have given the man he loved such pleasure. The good dreamer was panting, collapsed on Daniel's chest and Daniel could smell the salt warmth of his sweat even above the musty scent of his semen. He seemed so vulnerable in that moment, Daniel couldn't help reaching up to stroke the back of his head, running his fingers through thick short hair, nuzzling at it so he could drink in the scent of it. He kissed the crown of the man's head, rubbing his cheek against his hair, wanting to bury himself in it, in this moment, forever. 

The good dreamer recovered enough to turn his head slowly, kissing Daniel's chest as he did so, before reaching up to kiss him on the mouth again. Then the warmth and weight of the man's body was lifted from him and Daniel felt cold at once, missing it, wanting to wrap his arms around him and call him back. This was the only problem: that each time the good dreamer left him it was harder and harder to let him go. But this time at least the man didn't seem to be going yet. Daniel heard the trickle of water, then the splashing musical sound of something clay being filled with liquid. A warm wet cloth was pressed lightly to his abdomen, then he was cleansed as tenderly as child, the good dreamer kneeling between his legs to wash him, pausing every now and then to brush another tender kiss across his mouth as he did so. Daniel sighed with pleasure as the cloth washed the spilled seed from his skin and sighed again as another kiss tantalized his lips. He opened his mouth, trying to coax that tongue back in and it dabbed at him teasingly, brushing his jaw, his lips, even the tip of his nose, before thrusting tenderly back into his mouth. He sucked on it ecstatically while the warm cloth traveled between his thighs, leaving a damp trail around his balls, along his cock, then back to his balls again before slipping between his butt cheeks to gently heat his opening. This time the finger was behind the cloth and it probed a fraction deeper. Daniel opened his legs, but the finger was withdrawn almost at once, the tongue reluctantly withdrawn from his mouth. 

Then came the farewell kiss on his eyelids, the whispered, "Go to sleep, Daniel." And then the good dreamer was gone.

This time he felt the loss of him more keenly. Before he'd known that each encounter would be short; perfect but limited. He'd even told himself that was why they were so perfect. But now for the first time he began to crave more reality. He wanted to ask the good dreamer where he came from, where he went to; if he would be coming back. If he would promise Daniel he was coming back because he could only bear this separation if he knew it was temporary. If he knew how much Daniel loved him.

Daniel rolled over, the familiar pleasure tingling through his body, slipping a hand between his thighs to cradle his testicles the way the good dreamer had, warming them with his own heat, trying to comfort himself for what was becoming a near-unbearable loss.

That was when the chill washed over him, the sense of someone else being here with him in a dark that was no longer protective and disguising but just meant he couldn't see who was watching him. He heard the faint hiss of a snake and a voice breathing one word in vicious contempt: 'Whore.'

***

"Chief Ankana?" Daniel felt absurdly nervous. He had done this so many times before, but there was something about this old man that made him feel like a schoolboy. Sometimes when the man looked at him, Daniel swore there wasn't a thought in his head the chief of the Hetari didn't know about. The Hetari woman had told him absolutely nothing as apparently it was forbidden for them to speak to someone who was not of their tribe. After the week he'd been having, Daniel wasn't even surprised.

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if you could spare me a little time?"

"Yes, we should speak." This time the man seemed to be taking him more seriously. Ankana held back the door of his wigwam and waved Daniel inside. The pine-log structure was very similar to one's Daniel had seen on Earth, and it was automatic to peer at the…

It was exactly the same as in his dream. Exactly. The same skins on the walls, on the floor. There was even the wolf skin rug exactly where he'd imagined it. Daniel's jaw dropped.

"Sit." Ankana waved him imperiously to a cushion, and Daniel automatically sat down cross-legged. The chief gave him a look of enquiry. "You have questions for me?"

Yeah, how the hell do I know what this place looks like?

"How can you and Jack communicate?" That wasn't what he'd been intending to ask, but it slipped out before he could stop it.

"How all men communicate."

"But you and I are speaking through a…language. A language we can both speak. Jack doesn't speak this language. Actually, Jack doesn't speak any language except English."

"O'Neill speaks many languages; he just doesn't know that he can do so." Ankana seemed to think that a full and frank answer. He also seemed to think that was the only answer Daniel needed. "You have another question for me?"

"Is your…medicine man, a good or a bad man?"

"All men have both good and evil inside of them. But Tehuani has much less good than most."

"Am I right to be…" He'd almost said 'afraid' then, but then decided another word might be more diplomatic, not to mention less embarrassing. "…cautious?" Nope, still sounded like he was running scared. And Daniel certainly hadn't meant to ask that question either. The last thing he'd wanted to do was tell a man who already seemed to think he was a child that he'd run away from the big bad witch doctor.

"He could do you great harm, but no man should ever run from his fears."

"So, I should go back there? Confront him? Make him talk to me? Try and show him that I'm not…what he thinks I am? Whatever that might be."

"What did he call you?"

He really hadn't wanted to go there. He moistened his lips before saying matter-of-factly, "He called me a whore."

"And do you think of yourself as a…whore?"

"No." Daniel half-smiled. "It's absurd."

"Why?"

Daniel blinked. "Why? Because I…I've never had sex with anyone for money or gain."

"Have you loved everyone you have lain with?"

"Yes…no, but that was different. Hathor made me… Um, she had this sort of drug…I should have resisted but…even Jack couldn't stop her turning him into a…"

Ankana held up a hand, and Daniel was actually relieved the man was insisting he stopped talking. "One woman lay with you because she loved you. One woman lay with you because she was ill. One woman lay with you because she needed something from you. One woman lay with you because she had been fed a fantasy that had stolen her commonsense. One woman lay with you because she found you attractive. Why have the men in your life lain with you?"

Daniel gaped at him. "There are no… I mean I have no… I never have…"

"Had you done so would that make you a whore?"

"No." He said it forcefully. "Why should it?"

"Then why have you not done so, seeing as how the women in your life have caused you only sorrow? Why have you not tried to find happiness elsewhere?"

"No, they haven't. Sha're and I were very happy together until Apophis stole her away."

"How long were you together?"

"A year."

"How long were you apart?"

"Two years."

"Were you happy when you were apart?"

"No, but…"

"Did her absence make you unhappy?"

"Yes, but…"

"Then even Sha're made you unhappy more than she made you happy. The next girl gave you an illness. The next stole the seed from your loins. The next almost killed you. The next would have killed you in trying to kill herself."

"How do you know all this? Did Jack tell you…?"

"Why have you never lain with a man?"

Daniel stared at Ankana, feeling anger and bewilderment warring inside him. "Why are you asking me that? I bet you didn't ask Jack that."

"If there was a man who could make you happy would you lie with him?"

"I suppose so. I've never thought about it. I don't find men attractive."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Yes."

"If Tehuani could prove to you that you did, would that make you a whore?"

"No. It might make me a little confused though."

"That is good." Ankana nodded in evident satisfaction. "Your capacity for shame is his greatest weapon."

Daniel stared at the man in confusion. "I don't understand what you want from me."

"I want you to overcome your shame and find love. It is important that you do so."

"Important?"

"For all of us." Ankana's upraised hands seemed to encompass not just the whole village but also the whole universe.

Daniel decided they'd probably talked enough for now. He got to his feet. "Um – thank you, that was very…interesting."

He blundered back out into the daylight with his thoughts spinning like a Ferris wheel. Jack was waiting for him outside, chewing on some native plant or other which was making his tongue go purple. "You okay, Daniel?" he looked at him in concern. "What did Ankana say to you?"

Daniel moistened his lips. "I have no idea." He peered at Jack's stained lips. "What's that stuff?"

"It's supposed to make you more receptive to the dream state, heightened awareness of the spirit world, that sort of thing. You know, make you able to keep a foot in both camps even when you're awake. Just seemed like a good idea with that Tehuani guy around."

Daniel hesitated. Jack was acting seriously weird, and he probably ought to do something about it. For all he knew Ankana was drugging Jack or hypnotizing him. He really ought to go back, get Janet Fraiser and get her to come and run a drug test…but he was just so damned tired at the moment. And Jack looked okay, after all. He didn't seem unhappy and he didn't seem to be harming anyone else or himself. Perhaps Daniel could just monitor the situation and only inform Janet if Jack got…weirder. "Fine." As he set off in the direction of the mangrove swamp he thought how much easier it would be if he could just go crazy too, that way he might even start enjoying himself.

 

The mangrove swamp was just as creepy, and Tehuani was still sitting in the same place, stirring the same damned cauldron, wearing that same mask of contempt and dislike as he looked Daniel over. Daniel felt exhausted just looking at him. He wondered if he was coming down with flu or something. He felt as though he hadn't slept in a week.

"Your colonel not giving you enough, whoreboy? You want some of my medicine?"

Daniel gritted his teeth. Sometimes he could see that as a policy 'shoot first, ask questions later' had a lot to recommend it. He kept his voice even. "Look, I think we may have got off on the wrong foot. My name's Daniel Jackson."

"Has no one ever taught you that you never give your name to an enemy?"

Counting to ten was something else that might be worth trying. Daniel gritted his teeth a little harder. "I'm an anthropologist. That's someone who studies the history and customs of people of other races and cultures. I would very much like to know about your role in the Hetari tribe, for instance. Are you a healer? A shaman?"

"I am the one who controls their dreams. I am the one who controls the door to the Underworld. I am the one they hate but dare not kill."

Well, that was communication of a sort. Daniel decided to regard it as progress. "Why do they hate you?"

"Because they fear me."

"Why do they fear you?"

"Because I have great power. Witness it…" Tehuani snapped his fingers and suddenly Daniel was no longer standing fully-clothed in the ridged wet earth of the mangrove swamp, he was lying on his back on a piece of sacking, the overpowering stench of pig grease and human sweat assaulting his nostrils. He was naked and bound, wrists tied to a pole behind his head, a leather dildo pushed into his mouth to gag him, legs open and bent, gaze riveted in horror on Tehuani's right upper arm, at the muscles bulging there as the man pumped the outsized fertility symbol inside him with savage pleasure. The pain ripped through him, bruising him, tearing him – 

"No!" With a huge effort, Daniel wrenched himself out of that place, staggering backwards with the strain of tearing himself away from that illusion and shaking his head to dislodge the nightmarish picture.

Tehuani was smiling, revealing a set of purple-stained teeth. He held up the wooden dildo mockingly. "I will save it for you, Macu'. I would like to hear how loudly you squeal when I make you take it to the root."

"That is just never going to happen," Daniel told him tersely. He backed up another couple of feet. "Do you want to tell me how you did that? Hypnosis? The power of suggestion? Some kind of hallucinogenic dust?"

"Unlike you, I never give weapons to my enemies." Tehuani rose to his feet and began to walk towards him.

Daniel tried to tell himself he wasn't being stalked, and he wasn't frightened. He had a gun in a holster on his thigh. He could defend himself. He had stood up to the Goa'uld with nothing before now. He was not going to be intimidated by a witch doctor with delusions of grandeur.

"Jack and I aren't your enemies."

"He challenges me."

Daniel swallowed. "As far as I'm aware he hasn't even spoken to you."

Tehuani covered the ground between them in three swift paces. Daniel hadn't realized quite how big the man was. His buckskin loincloth was doing very little to hide what seemed to be the makings of a very intimidating erection, and Daniel decided to keep his gaze above waist level for the rest of this conversation. Tehuani's dark eyes blazed with disdain as he loomed over Daniel. "He challenges me. Ankana has asked him to do battle and because he is a strong warrior in your world he has agreed. He even thinks he can defeat me. When I take you from him, he will realize he is wrong. Ankana will understand that he must make obeisance to me if he does not wish the world he knows to become my domain."

Daniel took a step backwards. "Well, I have no idea what you're talking about, and I don't think I really want to. But underestimating Jack is something a lot of Goa'uld have done over the years and a number of them are now very dead. You might want to think about that."

Tehuani's right hand shot out and seized Daniel's shoulder, tightened like a vice. With his left hand he reached under his loin cloth and lifted it to show Daniel how hard his cock was, purple veined and already oozing with anticipation. Daniel quickly averted his eyes, but he couldn't help but be aware of Tehuani stroking his erection as though it was a pet animal he was promising imminent satisfaction. "Kneel before me."

"No." Daniel tried to jerk free. The man's grip was crushing his shoulder but there was way he was going to kneel.

"Kneel! And then open your mouth or you die here."

"Not a chance in hell," Daniel said tersely, still desperately struggling to stay on his feet.

Tehuani let go of his shoulder and stepped back. His gaze flicked over Daniel with a mixture of loathing and lust that Daniel found very disconcerting. "Either you pleasure me, or you die."

Daniel looked him over. "I don't see a weapon."

"He is my weapon." 

It was impossible not to turn and look where Tehuani was pointing. The crocodile looked as though he had been watching them for some time. He was perhaps fifteen feet away. He was also huge. Daniel swallowed hard. It looked like a saltwater crocodile; surely they were the only ones who grew that damned big? But this was freshwater so that didn't make sense. Unless they grew bigger on this world. Or this was just another illusion. The crocodile snapped its jaws at a passing dragonfly before turning its head back to look at Daniel. It had the same malevolent contempt in its eyes as Tehuani had in his. Daniel had read somewhere that the big crocodiles could reach speeds of 40 mph over short distances. There was no way he could outrun it.

Probably best not to think about that. Think mythology – the Egyptians had considered the crocodile a deity because, according to Plutarch, it could see while not being seen as God sees all while not being seen Himself, and because it was the only animal without a tongue, like the Divine Logos, which 'standeth not in need of speech'… No, that wasn't helping much. What else could he remember? Oh yes, in the seven days held sacred to Apis, it was a tradition that the crocodile would hurt no one. Well, these weren't the seven days held sacred to Apis, so that didn't help him either. Sobek, was the main crocodile god in Egyptian mythology and…the damned thing was coming towards him…

"Kneel, open your mouth and suck on my cock until my seed fills your throat or else Ajauca will eat you alive."

" 'Ajauca'?" Daniel swallowed hard. "That sounds like a derivative of the Itza 'ajaucay'."

At a nod from Tehuani Daniel sensed rather than heard the enormous reptile began to shuffle towards him. He had the gun out of his thigh holster and trained on it so fast he even surprised himself. "Call it off or I'll put a bullet in it right now." He tried to make his voice as dead and hard as Jack's. That 'brooking no argument' tone which made people jump to it when Jack used it. That had even made Daniel jump to it on a couple of occasions.

The crocodile stopped and Daniel risked a glance at Tehuani. "Your call. I've got plenty of bullets." He wasn't sure what kind of impression a 9mm round was going to make on that incredibly tough hide, but he was damned sure that emptying a clip into it should at least slow the creature up enough for him to make a run for it.

The shaman narrowed his eyes and made a brief pass with his right hand, murmuring something under his breath as he did so. "And now you have none."

Daniel jerked his gaze back to his gun in time to see it writhe and lengthen in his hand, turning into a hissing green snake which opened its fangs and made a dive for his wrist. Self-preservation made him throw it away in horror. The snake hissed at him before slithering away into the undergrowth. Daniel looked back at the crocodile and saw it advancing on him purposefully. "Shit." He seemed to have frozen where he was. There had to be a way out of this. There had to be. It was ten feet away, eight feet. Christ, those were very big teeth, and there were so many of them – 

Bullets sent the dust dancing frenziedly five feet from the crocodile's snout. Jack's voice was exactly the way Daniel had tried to get his: "You want to call off your friend. Or shall I just make sure Carter and Fraiser get a lot of new handbags this year?"

Tehuani hissed in annoyance, a sound so like the one the snake had just made that Daniel flinched automatically.

"Your choice." There was immovable steel in Jack's tone and Daniel knew he was very willing to pull that trigger if he had to.

Tehuani made a pass with his hand and Daniel jerked his head around in time to see the MP-5 Jack was holding spasm and writhe before remaining very stolidly the matt black outline of an automatic weapon. "Nice try." Jack didn't so much as blink, gaze boring into Tehuani unflinchingly. "But unlike Daniel I don't have any problems about carrying a gun. I like guns. They kill bad guys. They save my life. They save my teammates' lives. They fire real bullets right where I want them to go. And telling my teammate to suck your dick is a surefire way to make me want to send them where you are. Do we understand each other?"

The shaman snarled in frustration and snapped his fingers at the crocodile. With a last look at Daniel which seemed to promise all kinds of retribution, the enormous reptile turned and moved slowly back towards the creek. Daniel watched it slide beneath the water, half-hypnotized, unable to look away until even the tip of its long muscular tail had vanished. Only then did he turn to Jack. "Thank you." He backed away from Tehuani.

The shaman held his gaze, his eyes holding the same unnerving threat as the crocodiles. "I will see you in your dreams."

"No. You won't." Jack's hand on his arm was as comforting as the certainty in his voice. He tightened his grip on Daniel's arm. "Come on, Daniel. Time to go."

As soon as they were out of earshot, Daniel said, "Thanks – he – I – I don't know he does the things he does, but my gun turned into a snake and…" He moistened his lips. "In retrospect I don't think going to see him was the best idea I've ever had."

"Are you okay?" 

Daniel was a little embarrassed by how relieved he was to see that anxiety in Jack's eyes. It was good to know the man still worried about him. "I'm fine, Jack. Thanks to you."

"He didn't – do anything else to you?"

Just for a second Daniel thought about telling Jack about that image Tehuani had somehow projected into his mind, but his guts knotted with embarrassment at the thought. He couldn't possibly describe that scene to Jack. He would have had a problem describing it to Sam, never mind another man. He shook his head. "No. Nothing."

"Might be an idea not to visit him again."

"Believe me, I wasn't planning to."

"You're sure you're all right?"

Daniel nodded. "I don't think that was a real crocodile. I mean – I think it would have eaten me. But I don't think it's…real. I think it's Tehuani in a different form, but I can't work out how he does that."

"Daniel, the guy is scum. I don't think it really matters in what way he's scum. Just don't…think about him, okay? Thinking about someone like that just adds to his power over you."

Jack was definitely getting very philosophical these days. Daniel couldn't tell whether he liked it or not. He was glad the man had decided to stop being in denial of his spiritual side but it was still a little disconcerting to have him handing out the sage advice. He darted him a sideways look. "Was what you said to Tehuani about guns true?"

Jack shrugged. "Enough to stop him turning my MP-5 into a boomslang. That didn't seem an appropriate moment to be concentrating on the fact it was a gun that killed my son."

"Sorry." Daniel flinched.

"Don't be sorry." Both the voice and the hand on his shoulder were gentle, and Daniel found himself as always taken unawares by how much it could move him when Jack took the trouble to be kind to him. Not that Jack wasn't always kind to him, even when he was being a bit impatient there was usually kindness behind it, but sometimes when Jack's gaze or tone softened that bit extra it got under Daniel's defenses so completely it could bring unexpected tears of gratitude to his eyes. 

He blinked hard, managing gruffly, "Okay."

They walked back to the camp in thoughtful silence, but Daniel couldn't help noticing that it seemed to take them much longer to travel through the mangrove swamp this time.

***

Daniel awoke to the darkness and smiled. When he heard the footsteps brushing so softly across the sand, he closed his eyes and felt the familiar anticipatory trembling began to tingle through every limb.

Warm dry lips brushed his forehead, then kissed his eyelids, a sigh warming his skin. Daniel frowned. The good dreamer sounded a little sad about something. Because Daniel had his eyes closed? But if he opened his eyes that might ruin everything. This was too precious for Daniel to want to risk spoiling it. 

His momentary disquiet was smothered by that familiar mouth fitting itself against his, lips brushing his, a tongue tantalizing his. Daniel tried to suck the good dreamer's tongue into his mouth but the man teased him with kisses so light they barely dabbed at his skin, until Daniel was straining upwards desperate for deeper contact. It suddenly occurred to him that he could pull the good dreamer down to meet him. Tentatively Daniel reached up and touched the man's face, he withdrew his fingers at once, waiting for a reproof, then, when none came, touched again; he felt warm skin, the hard ridge of cheekbones, the rasp of stubble. No reproof, no rejection. The good dreamer reached up and put his hand on top of Daniel's, closing it over his fingers as Daniel made to snatch his hand away. Daniel's hand was transferred to his lips, each fingertip kissed very gently, then Daniel's hand was placed on the good dreamer's neck in clear invitation. Daniel understood; he wrapped his arms around the man's neck and gently tugged him down. As their mouths met, he could feel the good dreamer was smiling. Daniel smiled too as he realized he'd done the right thing. 

Now the good dreamer was kissing him deeply and passionately, tongue exploring Daniel's mouth as though he wanted to count every tooth in his head. Daniel pulled him in even deeper, opening his mouth wider so the good dreamer's tongue could probe as deeply as it liked. As the good dreamer's cock brushed against Daniel's erection, lightning bolts of pleasure shot into his groin and he gasped. The good dreamer had his hands in Daniel's hair, pulling out a little and then pushing his tongue deeper, gentle thrusts which Daniel found incredibly arousing. When the man finally broke the contact, Daniel tried to pull him back. A finger tapped his nose in the lightest possible reproof and Daniel grinned, despite himself, and unwilling unlocked his grip.

"Good boy, Daniel…"

It was whispered huskily into his left ear and made him shiver with pleasure. When a tongue was inserted into the cavity that whisper had just warmed, he gave an involuntary spasm, body jolting a little. The good dreamer let their groins connect again, cock just glancing against cock while that warm wet tongue burrowed deep into Daniel's ear.

Daniel gave a strangled whimper. Trying to bite down on that 'Oh God yes!' bursting to escape from his throat. 

Only after Daniel's ear had been laved to the point where Daniel was squirming with a mixture of arousal and embarrassment, did the warm mouth travel down his cheekbone, along his jaw, down his neck, and then begin a thorough exploration of the smooth skin of Daniel's chest. That warm tongue teased his nipples to hardness and then traced a wet trail down his abdomen.

The trembling was stronger now. Daniel wanted the good dreamer to touch him everywhere at once, finger him, lick him, kiss, suck, bite, and then enter him, deep and hot and tender…He groaned with longing as the good dreamer nuzzled at the inside of his thighs, kissing and nipping the soft flesh there.

It's okay, Daniel. The voice was so soft he wasn't sure if the words were even spoken aloud or only sounded in his mind. It's okay to want this. To want anything. You don't have to fight it…

Daniel relaxed into the kissing and licking which, having left a wet trail along the inside of his thigh was now moving beneath his balls. That tongue dabbed at him, surprisingly firm as it warmed his perineum, almost reaching the crack of his ass, and then his testicles were being mouthed gently, kissed, nibbled and little, and then each one in turn was taken into the good dreamer's mouth and sucked to a wet heat.

His cock was aching with the pain of its arousal now. Pleasure was thrumming out from his groin in all directions, zinging down his thighs to his toes, shooting up his spine. When two strong hands were applied to his hips and he was held down firmly all he could think about was that the wonderful sucking of his balls had stopped. When a hot mouth closed over the weeping head of his cock, he jolted in surprise. The pleasure was so intense his hips jerked up automatically, but he was pushed down again and held still while his cock was sucked harder, taken in deeper. Again he jerked upwards, the shock of these sensations almost too much, just knowing he had to thrust into this incredible heat, had to. But the hands wouldn't let him move, pinning him to the sleeping bag while the sucking continued, pulling him in deeper just where he needed to be.

It was all too much and although he wanted it to last forever, the pleasure was too intense, too new, too overwhelming. He began to shake, sensation coursing up from his feet, wave after wave, thrumming through him ecstatically before exploding into climax.

He was floating in a white-out of delirium. Someone was kissing him, and his tongue tasted musky and bitter. He curled his tongue away from the flavor and then curiously tasted it again, rolling it around on his tongue. Semen. His own semen. He had come in the good dreamer's mouth. Was that bad? Was the man angry? Should he have done that? He'd lost control. 

It's okay, Daniel, it's okay. You were perfect. You were beautiful. You were so beautiful. 

The good dreamer still loved him. The man was so gently stroking his short bangs back off his forehead and kissing him passionately and tenderly, murmuring it over and over. "It's okay, Daniel, it's okay to enjoy that. It really is okay."

Daniel put his arms around the man's neck. He so wanted to say, "Don't go. Don't ever go." But it might be against the rules for him to speak. He felt this was a very fragile paradise they'd found for themselves here in the dream-dark. He didn't want to shatter it.

When the man gently disentangled Daniel's arms from his neck and kissed him on the eyelids in farewell, Daniel felt tears burn a trail from under his lashes. He didn't want the good dreamer to go. Not ever.

Ask me and I'll stay, but you have to ask me…

He'd imagined that. Because he so wanted to hear it, probably. The good dreamer would never say that because the good dreamer knew they could only exist in this moment, in dreams they would later forget.

Forget?

But he remembered every moment he'd spent with the good dreamer. Why did he feel that when he was with him he was forgetting someone else? The good dreamer was all he'd ever wanted. There was no one else.

"Go to sleep, Daniel."

The good dreamer sounded sorrowful, a sigh of resignation in his voice. Another kiss warm against his forehead, and then Daniel was alone in the dark.

Not alone. Someone was here with him. Someone malevolent. He heard footsteps, not the good dreamer's footsteps, walking around him in a circle, a hiss of frustration. "Whore… You'd let a man fuck you you've never even seen. Whore!"

Daniel put his hands over his ears. No. This didn't happen in the dream-place. Only good things happened in the dream-place. Only good dreams.

As he drifted into sleep he felt uneasy, as though there were a thousand nightmares trying to find him, like a pack of wolves which had not yet picked up his trail but were even now scenting the air…

***

"Daniel, we should talk."

Daniel looked up from his journal and blinked in surprise. "Talk?"

"Yes."

"About?"

Jack scratched his jaw. "Stuff."

Daniel put down his pen and gave the man a wary look. "Okay, now you're really scaring me."

Jack grimaced. "You're not helping. You know I suck at this kind of thing."

"Well, the old Jack did, I presume the all new Hiawatha version of you is probably going to retrain as a relationship councilor."

"Damnit, Daniel." Jack rubbed his eyes. "Look. I spoke to Ankana this morning and you're not going to get zip out of these people until after this second Ritual. Now, as we have to stay here or upset their Ritual business and we have a lot of time on our hands, we might as well have a proper conversation."

Daniel closed his notebook. "Fine, you start." 

He'd thought that would shut Jack up in a second, but the man just looked relieved. "Okay. Let's talk about your foster parents."

"Let's not." Daniel automatically wrapped his arms around himself.

Jack looked at him and then nodded at Daniel's protective stance. "Let's talk about that."

"Nothing to talk about."

There was a long pause before Jack shrugged. "Okay, let’s talk about me. My father never hugged me, you know, not once. He was a…man's man, you know the type. Don't talk about your feelings; if your kid's dog gets run over you pat him on the shoulder, tell him only women cry so he mustn't snivel about it, and you'll buy him another one tomorrow. Doesn't mean you don't care. You just feel the world's a tough place, and he's going to have to be tough to survive in it."

"You're not like that." Daniel said it at once.

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Glad to hear it. I catch myself acting like him sometimes, but I try not to be. I was absolutely determined that my son was going to know I loved him. You wouldn't think that was such a hard thing to do – to tell someone you care about how much you care about him, but my father couldn't do it, and I had to retrain myself to do it with Sara. Not with Charlie. Never had a problem telling Charlie I loved him. I think he did at least know that he was loved."

"Oh God, Jack…" Daniel swallowed hard. "I'm sure he did. I'm sure he knew it from the moment he was born – "

"Maybe." Jack grimaced. "I'm hoping your parents were better at that touchy-feely stuff than mine were?"

Daniel smiled. "Oh yes, they were…wonderful. My father used to give me piggy-back rides everywhere until I was about five years old – luckily I was skinny little kid. I used to cling to his back like a spider monkey while he and my mother went into pyramids. My mother used to wrap me in her arms and read to me every night…" He broke off, good memories suddenly overwhelmed by that other memory of the chain breaking, the stone falling, the screams, the blood. 

Jack nodded as though that was no more than he expected. "I could never explain to Sara it wasn't that I didn't like being touched. You know when I wake up punching or pushing the person next to me away. It's just… You get captured a couple of times you get a little twitchy. As you come around you're just trying to get loose, trying to prove you're free. It isn't personal."

"Are you…?" Daniel frowned. He'd thought Jack wanted to open up, talk through some problem from his past, but suddenly they seemed to be back to Daniel again. What exactly was Jack wanting from him here? "Are you apologizing to me for something?"

"A couple of times you've been the one sitting with me after I've got myself knocked out and I think I might have come around hitting out. Have I hit you?"

"No."

"Just pushed you away?"

Daniel's dropped his gaze. "I don't – I don't remember."

"Because if I ever did do that it wouldn't be because I didn't want you touching me or I was telling you to get your hands off, it would just be me not knowing what was going on and reverting to Black Ops paranoia." Jack looked at him intently. "Were your foster parents touchy-feely people?"

"No." Daniel wrapped his arms around himself again. How the hell had they got back to this anyway? "They were very… undemonstrative. I did try hugging them a few times, but they didn't really like it. I had a foster brother who told me only…"

"What?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "Only faggots hug guys? If you go around touching men without their permission you're going to be picking your teeth up off the floor?"

Daniel grimaced. "I don't remember. It was years ago." He saw Jack's expression and forgot his own embarrassment wondering what could possibly put that look on the man's face, make him so sad and so angry all at once. "What's the matter?"

"I'm just starting to see how spider-monkey kid got turned into self-hugging-mustn't-touch-anyone teenager. Then got mixed up together and turned into someone whose first instinct is to reach out and whose second instinct is to snatch his hand away like he's going to get his fingers burned off for touching."

"Jack, I didn't exactly have a deprived childhood. I know people hear all these horror stories about orphanages and foster care but my foster parents were perfectly decent people who treated me…"

"Perfectly decently?"

Daniel decided to ignore the sarcasm in Jack's voice and take that statement at face value. "Yes."

"Well, I just thought this might be an appropriate moment to let you know that I never mind you touching me, and if I've said anything or done anything to give the impression that I did, I'm sorry, and I didn't mean it."

"Okay." Daniel darted him a sideways look. "Um – Jack, are you planning to go through every possible imaginary slight you might have given me in the last three years while we wait for this second Ritual? Because if you are I'm just going to move into Sam and Teal'c's teepee now if that's okay with you?"

To his surprise, Jack gave him a look of horror. "Don't be insane, Daniel. You can't possibly sleep somewhere else!"

"Why not?"

There was a long silence as Jack wrestled with some internal struggle Daniel couldn't even guess at. After a long pause, the man shrugged. "It would count as an insult to Ankana. It would be as if you'd told him the accommodation he'd provided wasn't good enough for you."

"That wasn't what you were going to say."

"Yes, it was."

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes, it was."

"Wasn't."

"Was."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "You're thinking of Tehuani. You think he's going to send his pet crocodile in to eat me in the night."

"To something you in the night, yes, maybe I am."

Jack muttered it so quietly, Daniel wasn't sure he'd heard him correctly. "What?"

Jack lifted his head. "I told you – you'd be insulting Ankana. You're stuck with sharing a teepee with me, and you might as well get used to it."

Daniel looked at him for a long moment and then shrugged. "Fine. Can I write up my journal now?"

"Sure. I have to go and see Ankana anyway." Jack sprang to his feet and picked up his MP-5. He paused in the doorway of the teepee. "Don't invite Tehuani in. If he should come here and ask to speak to you, tell him he can't come in. Okay?"

"Okay." Daniel didn't look up from his journal, still trying to find a way to describe what had happened in the mangrove swamp which didn't sound too crazy. He jumped as Jack sank to his haunches right in front of him. 

"Daniel!"

"What?" he protested.

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yes."

"Did you understand that it's an order?"

The word made the hackles stand up on the back of Daniel's neck straight away. There were a lot of bad words in the English language, but that had to be one of the most annoying. He gave the man his best level stare. "I do now."

"You don't let Tehuani in here, for any reason at all."

"Understood, Colonel O'Neill, sir." Daniel gave him a deliberately poor salute. Jack sighed, shook his head, then walked out into the daylight. Daniel watched him go and wondered why the air seemed suddenly so many degrees colder. When he looked out of the flap of the teepee he could see the totem pole. Although he knew it must be his imagination, both the snake and the jaguar seemed to be watching him malevolently.

***

For the first time as he lay on his back on his sleeping bag with the good dreamer lying on top of him kissing his forehead, Daniel wondered if the darkness wasn't also a barrier as well as a protection. There was a part of him beginning to long to see the man he loved. To touch the man he loved. It was wonderful to be touched. The good dreamer had caressed him so many times now, kissed him so gently, traced fingers down his skin, licked and nibbled and sucked at him tenderly and passionately, bitten him as softly as a cat demanding to be fed. There had been so much love in every touch. Now Daniel wanted to show that he too could touch and give pleasure, could kiss the good dreamer's leanly muscled arms, could bury his face in the soft fuzz of the man's chest hair, could suckle gently on that stubble-roughened throat.

As he tentatively stroked his hands down the man's arms, the good dreamer rubbed noses with him, fitting his mouth to Daniel's so that Daniel could taste and feel his smile. This was clearly permitted. When, as he dared to stroke his hands down the man's ribcage the good dreamer kissed Daniel more passionately Daniel realized this was positively encouraged.

And this was heaven, right here. This skin, this heat, this stubbled jaw, this warm chest hair, this soft skin underneath the good dreamer's throat, these fingers, long, strong and sensitive, which Daniel sucked on eagerly. When the finger was gently tugged from between his teeth and used to stroke a line down his face, Daniel burrowed down further, found a nipple and sucked on that. Gentle hands cradled his head, stroking his hair.

Anything you like, Daniel. Anything. You can touch me anywhere you want to.

Daniel groaned with pleasure and wanting, becoming fiercer, nipping harder, tracing a line down the man's chest to his ribs, letting his tongue bump and slide across each cushioned bone. Then the good dreamer was pulling away from him, and for a horrible moment he thought he'd gone too far, done something wrong. And then he realized the man was just moving off him to lie next to him, a gentle tug on Daniel's arm encouraging him to climb on top if he wanted to. Daniel definitely wanted to.

He knelt over the good dreamer, luxuriating in kissing every inch of his chest, reveling in the taste and scent of his skin, hearing soft words of encouragement whispered in his mind as he rubbed his face against that taut stomach, managing to find and trace the trail of fine hairs which led down from his naval to his groin. With a sigh of contentment, Daniel buried his face in that wonderfully warm nestling of balls and cock, kissing each in turn as gently as though they might break at his touch. 

As he breathed on it, the soft cock began to harden, bruising his mouth as it doubled in size at his touch. Daniel inhaled the scent of it ecstatically before tentatively letting the tip of his tongue brush against it. It tasted salty, a little bitter, but still delicious to him. He opened his mouth wider, took a second experimental swipe with his tongue at the base of it. His tongue touched those balls nestling so vulnerably in their sacs, and he couldn't resist tilting his head to suck on them gently.

The groan of pleasure the good dreamer emitted, told him he was probably doing this right, and Daniel proceeded with more confidence, opening wider to take each one into his mouth in turn, sucking them gently before that straining cock brushing the side of his face reminded him why the good dreamer was trembling with anticipation. He raised himself up a little higher, stroking his fingers along the length of that cock until he held it lightly just below the head, brushing his lips along his own wrist to follow a trail to that weeping head.

The good dreamer's precum tasted even more delicious on a second lick and it was impossible not to open his mouth and begin sucking on the straining head at once. Remembering how his hips had jerked up in response to that contact, Daniel quickly reached for the good dreamer's hips, pushing down steadily as he tried to take a little more of the man's cock into his mouth. He sucked harder, trying to swallow his own saliva as he did so, not wanting to inadvertently grate his teeth against that slick salty skin, or to lose this contact, just wanting to give the good dreamer the same pleasure he'd given Daniel. He was having to exert more pressure to keep the man's hips down, the good dreamer giving the same little convulsions Daniel had done. Daniel smiled at the realization he was getting this right and then quickly opened wider so as not to hurt the man with his teeth, realizing that if he took him in just a little deeper and swallowed he could stimulate the tip of the good dreamer's steel-hard cock with his throat…

When the man began to shake under his hands, Daniel knew what it meant and tried to relax his throat in readiness. The good dreamer gave a stifled groan of ecstasy. A voice in his mind shouted Daniel! And then hot fluid, bitter and creamy, splashed against the back of his throat. He swallowed it quickly then sucked again, milking the last of the semen from it until the cock softened in his mouth. It seemed so delicate a thing then, vulnerable and in need of tending. He licked it lovingly, cleaning every last drop from it and then kissed those velvety balls again, inhaling their delicious scent as he did so.

Hands furrowed a path through his hair. "Thank you," the good dreamer said a little breathlessly.

Daniel almost said 'You're welcome', and his heartbeat jolted uncomfortably as he realized how close he'd come to breaking the silence, shattering the spell. He rubbed his face gently against the good dreamer's groin and hoped that got the message across.

The good dreamer sighed and stroked his hair again. Daniel would have liked to go to sleep right here, just crawl up the man and lie on his chest, listen to his heartbeat slowly returning to normal, taste the sweat on his skin and know all the time it was from the climax he had given him. 

Just ask me to stay. I can't stay unless you ask me.

His imagination playing tricks on him again. He was just hearing what he wanted to hear. 

I know everyone else left you. Parents. Foster parents. Sha're. But I won't. I swear. I'm in for the long haul. I'll never leave you as long as you want me to stay. Just ask me to stay, Daniel.

Another sigh from the good dreamer, with such sadness in it that Daniel's heart contracted. The hands slid to the side of his face, tilted up his head and a kiss was planted on each eyelid. There was resignation in the voice which said, "Go to sleep, Daniel." Then the body slid up from between his legs, and he heard the sound of bare feet making a soft indentation in the dirt floor.

Daniel curled up on his sleeping bag, still tasting the good dreamer's semen on his tongue…Footsteps. He sat upright, hoping desperately it was the man he loved come back to tell him he could spend the night, would never leave him, that they could be together always. As a faint greenish light beat against his eyelids, Daniel jerked his eyes open in astonishment. Light? Here?

He was suddenly very aware of his nakedness as he realized there was a faint green ring of light surrounding him and his sleeping bag, an exposed circle in a sea of blackness. He knew who those footsteps were now, and they weren't the good dreamer's.

"Whore!"

Daniel flinched but felt compelled to turn his head and look at the man who stood in the darkness just outside the circle of light surrounding him. The man was a cloaked shadow but hatred came off him like a scent. Daniel knew at once this man wanted only to do him great harm.

"Look at you! Still with his come trickling down your chin! Disgusting whore! You will go to hell for this and every beast of the underworld will rut with you like the filth you are."

Daniel clasped his hands to his ears, trying to block out the malevolent hiss of that voice but the words spilled over him like pig grease coating his skin, about how his appetites were depraved and would lead him into deeper depravity, how he would suffer the fate of all whores, how every monster in hell would pump its seed inside him, how he would beg and scream for the mercy he neither deserved nor would ever receive –

This isn't your dream, Daniel. Don't let him into your dream. Don't let him into our dream. Go to sleep, Daniel. Go to sleep.

Blindly obedient to the soothing caress of that voice, Daniel wrapped his arms around his head and buried his face in the sleeping bag, trying to remember the scent of the good dreamer, the taste, touch, and feel of him, to remember only him. Only him. But this time as he drifted into sleep he knew the bad dreams were prowling just outside his circle, searching for a way to get inside. Hot tears slid down his cheek, burning his lips and, where they touched his tongue, they banished the taste of the good dreamer, turning the lingering flavor of his kiss to salt.

***

Daniel surfaced slowly. He was so damned tired, and that pearly light suggested it was also so damned early. He felt like he hadn't been sleeping well but he couldn't remember waking in the night. There was just that lingering tremor to his limbs which usually spoke of too much caffeine and not enough rest. There was the faint residue of a dream he would have liked to get back to but there was something else there as well which made him unwilling to close his eyes again, like a gate to Paradise with a Beware of the Bull sign hanging from it. 

What had woken him up anyway? Voices? An argument? Jack…?

Daniel rose blearily to his feet. He still had his pants on but it was chilly. The sun too newly risen to have had any chance to warm the land. He wrapped a Hetari blanket around his shoulders and stumbled out of the teepee.

Jack was talking to Ankana. Make that arguing with Ankana. He also had bare feet and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Anakana was sitting outside his wigwam, looking serene. Jack was standing in the dirt looking very far from serene.

"…why do I have to leave first? Why can't I wait until he's asleep?"

"That is his choice."

"Well, I need to change it."

"You cannot. Not unless he asks you to stay."

"It's too risky! I knew that son-of-a-bitch was just waiting for me to leave last night. When I went back in there Tehuani was telling him all kinds of dangerous crap."

"What did you expect? I told you he was the bad dreamer. I told you he would not easily be defeated."

"You made it sound like I would be the one fighting him."

"You are."

"What about the guy whose mind he's trying to poison?"

"He is what you fight the bad dreamer for." Ankana looked at Jack levelly. "Do not blame me because the battle has begun in earnest."

"I do blame you, damnit! I should never have agreed to stay. I should have hightailed it straight through that gate the second you told me what was happening here."

"It was already too late, O'Neill. As long as you and the sleeper were joined in the spirit world but not in the physical world, the bad dreamer could find your dream-place…"

"I didn't know it would…"

Ankana held up a hand. "He is awake."

Jack twisted around so quickly he almost overbalanced. His eyes widened in alarm. "Damnit, Daniel, what are you doing up?" 

He strode towards him so quickly Daniel automatically shuffled backwards. "What are you doing up?" he countered.

"Yelling at you last time I checked."

"You could have done that from inside."

Jack looked him over and then said quietly. "You should get some rest. You look tired."

"Have to have coffee now I'm awake."

"Get back in your sleeping bag. I'll bring you some." 

Daniel stared at the man in perplexity. Was this the same Jack O'Neill who had threatened to tip cold water over his head if he wasn't up in thirty seconds on their last mission? Who went out of his way to be aggravatingly cheerful on purpose just to torture those whose idea of a good time wasn't leaping out of bed at 5am? He darted him a sideways look. "You feeling okay?"

"Go back to bed, Daniel."

He went but as he walked back into the teepee he heard Ankana say: "It is only three more nights."

"I should never have agreed to this."

Jack sounded so wretched, Daniel flinched. This was so typical of the man, to struggle on with his 'duel' with Tehuani without asking any help from Daniel. 

As Daniel got back into his sleeping bag he couldn't help wondering if the reason why Jack hadn't asked for his help was because he thought Daniel was so useless there was no help he could give him. He was still wincing from that thought when Jack came in with an armful of wood for the fire.

***

Daniel awoke in the darkness and his heart gave a painful lurch: half anticipation, half fear. Would it be the good dreamer or the bad dreamer who came to him? What if the good dreamer had heard what the bad dreamer had said, what if he'd believed it? What if he thought Daniel was a whore and would never…?

Footsteps. Hurrying much faster than usual but the right footsteps. Daniel closed his eyes and within seconds the good dreamer was with him, kissing him tenderly, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth. There was relief in those kisses as well as love. Knuckles were trailed very gently up the side of his face, and then the good dreamer was pushing his fingers through Daniel's hair, brushing his lips against Daniel's mouth as he did so; a warm dry mouth touching Daniel's gently. But tonight, Daniel felt as though time was against them and he wanted things to happen faster. Wanted to bury himself in this man's skin and forget everything else. There were bad dreams out there waiting for him, but they couldn't reach him as long as the heat was coursing through his veins. He sucked the man's tongue into his mouth hungrily, reaching up to clasp his hands to each side of the good dreamer's face, pulling him closer wanting him to delve deep.

The good dreamer seemed to know what he wanted at once, the kisses immediately became harder, deeper, passionate and intense; the good dreamer's callused but sensitive fingers stroked down Daniel's ribcage before coming to rest on his hips, kneading the flesh gently. The kisses were demanding now and Daniel opened up to them, the good dreamer turning his head to drive his tongue deep into Daniel's mouth in probing thrusts. Daniel automatically jerked his hips, and their erections clashed together. The tongue was almost torn from his mouth as the good dreamer snatched some air; he could hear them both panting, could smell the sweat on both their skin. The good dreamer began to grind his hips against Daniel's before thrusting his tongue back into Daniel's mouth. Although still short of oxygen, Daniel sucked at that probing tongue hungrily, feeling those incredible spasms of pleasure jolting through his groin each time their cocks rubbed against one another. He canted his hips up in response to that contact, blindly questing for something he'd never experienced yet knowing he wanted the good dreamer to push that wonderfully hard bar deep inside him. But the other man rested his palms on Daniel's thighs, gently easing them back down. Not yet, Daniel. You're not ready for this yet. The way the good dreamer ground his groin against Daniel's, cock rubbing against cock in a rhythm that sent lightning bolts of ecstasy through every erogenous zone Daniel possessed, took off a lot of the disappointment.

Again the good dreamer dragged his tongue unwilling from Daniel's mouth, snatching another breath before clasping his hands to Daniel's face to hold it still as he thrust his tongue into Daniel's mouth in time to the pumping motion from his hips as he pushed his cock against Daniel's. 

Daniel could feel the pleasure building and building, rushing from his groin right up to the top of his skull as that tongue robbed him of oxygen and filled him with those delicious probing thrusts as the good dreamer's cock rubbed and clashed against his. They were jerking against each other, hotter and harder, gasping into each other's open mouths, tongues thrusting frenziedly as their cocks made delicious collision after delicious collision. It was too much, all too much…Daniel moaned, gasped, arched. Came. His scream stifled by the tongue in his mouth; hot fluid splattering against his stomach at the same moment he sent his own semen spurting against the good dreamer.

Afterwards he lay there panting in the man's arms, coming around from a semi-whiteout to find the good dreamer nuzzling his face, stroking his hair and very gently mumbling at the soft skin behind his ear as though he was inhaling Daniel's scent. 

Daniel felt exhausted, far more tired than ever before, and despite the pleasure there was a real fear of the moment when the good dreamer would leave him; not just the unbearable loss of the man's heat, scent, taste, touch, love; something else. Something waiting for him which frightened him. Something only the good dreamer's presence was keeping at bay.

He heard the tinkling of water again and then the good dreamer was washing him, planting kisses on the soft skin of his belly as he wiped it clean. Don'tgodon'tgodon'tgo… Daniel wished he had the courage to say it aloud but his fear of what might lie outside the darkness was making him even more afraid of losing what he had. If he lost the good dreamer he might as well be dead. Anything was better than that. He could endure anything but that. He closed his lips tightly, not letting himself say the words.

The good dreamer finished wiping him clean and then bent and kissed him on the mouth, sighing again as he did so. "Go to sleep, Daniel. Go straight to sleep."

Daniel heard the sound of footsteps retreating, then silence.

Then sound. This time the light was brighter, and he flinched from it, opening his eyes even though he knew he should keep them closed, having to put up an arm to shield them from the eerie green glow. Swamp mist light; phosphorescent; it seemed to carry a faint discord of frog-croak and cricket-song with it; the lazy rippling of near-stagnant water, out of which would emerge…

Daniel swallowed as he saw the man was back, but this time he had companions: A huge snake, long, thick and greenish black, and a jaguar. They had some significance these two animals, but he couldn't remember what it was. They weren't intrinsically bad; he did remember that. It depended on who controlled them. Had they accompanied the good dreamer they would have meant him no harm, but they had come with the bad dreamer, which meant they would do his will. Daniel swallowed hard. He knew the bad dreamer willed only pain and degradation for him. He presumed the snake must be an anaconda. Definitely a 'maja' – big snake – rather than a common or garden 'jujo' – snake – no question about that. It was testing the circle of light exposing Daniel's nakedness to its contempt, trying to find cracks, a way to get inside. As it slithered in one direction, the jaguar paced the other; each of them circling him, clockwise and widdershins.

The man hissed malevolently. "You wanted him to fuck you like an animal. You offered yourself to him, but he turned you down. Why would he want to stick his dick where so many others will in the future? Why would he want to sully himself with a whore?"

He did it to protect me. He sensed I wasn't really ready. Daniel tried to hang onto that thought, but doubt washed over him at once. Perhaps he was as disgusting as this man was telling him. Perhaps he did stink of corruption. Perhaps he couldn't fail to revolt anyone the way he acted like a bitch in heat. Perhaps no one could fail to despise someone who would let a man come out of the darkness every night and do anything he liked to him…

The snake gave a hiss of triumph and passed through the light. Daniel stayed paralyzed, still lying on his back, nowhere to escape to. The bad dreamer couldn't get through the circle yet. He could only send his familiars in to do his bidding, but if Daniel tried to run he would break the circle, and then the bad dreamer would have him. The bad dreamer was still sneering.

"You think he 'loves' you? How could he love you? How could anyone love you? No one ever wanted you. You were an accident and you know it. Your mother had a career. Why would she have wanted to have the burden of a child? Did your father not tell you again and again never to trouble them when they were working? You were a nuisance to them from the day you were born. They probably died just to get away from you. They didn't love you. No one could. Your foster parents' never did. Your foster brother hated you. He told you what would happen if you ever let a man touch you. If you ever touched a man. And now it has…"

And now the jaguar was inside the circle as well. Daniel swallowed as the two advanced on him, the snake gliding across the ground. Now it was on his right leg. He could feel the muscles of its surprisingly warm body contracting as it slid over him. Its body was very thick in the center and seemed to go on forever, thirty, forty, fifty feet of green-black snake, wrapping itself around his limbs. 

With one part of his mind he knew this wasn't real. That this was someone else's dream, and he was being dragged into it; he could fight his way loose if he could only concentrate. It wasn't real. The hot breath of the jaguar against his skin wasn't real, the sound as it purred near his ear, like someone sawing through knotted wood, that wasn't real. The rasp of its tongue, hot, wet and sandpaper coarse, on his arm. Not real. The snake coiling around his legs, traveling up further to push smoothly under his back and wrap him in its scaly muscular body, that wasn't real.

He could smell rotting meat in the breath of the jaguar, its purring a harsh rasp warming his ear. He could see teeth, sharp, white. Daniel turned his head away. It was real, damnit how could he think it wasn't real when he could see it, hear it, feel it. It could kill him. It would kill him…

The snake was wrapping itself around him. Its body growing longer and longer; fifty, sixty, seventy feet of anaconda, muscular scaly tail tightening around his arms, his torso, his legs, so much tail to spare that it wrapped itself around one leg before sending more coils to lap around the other, warming and chilling him at the same time. He was completely its captive now, enmeshed in its coils while the jaguar licked the skin of his shoulder; hot tongue rasping at his flesh. He couldn't move his arms, and his legs were being forced further apart, the coils tightening and tugging at him. The snake hissed contemptuously and rolled him over until he was lying on his front, gasping for breath as the weight of the snake pressed down on his back. It forced him up onto his knees with a wriggle of its coils. The jaguar's breath was burning his throat. He closed his eyes tightly as it put its face by his. Then it licked his eyelids; rasping off the kisses the good dreamer had left there to protect him. 

Daniel flinched from the harsh tongue against his eyelids, and then cried out as something probed between his legs. It took him a second to realize it was the end of the anaconda's tail. He shuddered as he realized the snake was caressing him mockingly, the tip of the tail playing with his balls before stroking up the crack of his ass, then it probed again, determined, ruthless.

"No!" He tried to struggle free, but his hands were bound tightly to his sides, and he could only wriggle helplessly. He was being stretched, opened, pain tearing at him.

As it forced the tip of its tail up inside him, pain ripped through him, and he twisted violently, desperately trying to get free, trying to choke down his cry, eyes watering with the agony. He jerked his head to the side and bit down hard on the first piece of snake he could get his teeth into. Its skin was surprisingly soft and warm. It hissed savagely and rammed its tail in harder and deeper. He bit into its flesh harder and deeper in retaliation, and it pulled its tail out of him. He gasped with the relief as the burning pain eased and slowly unclenched his teeth. The second he did so the tail was thrust back inside him, much deeper this time, feeling like a red hot poker as it rammed itself inside him, bruising him cruelly, threatening to split him in two. The scream was torn from him before he could choke it down.

Daniel!

The pain was searing, tearing; the tail jerking in and out of him in punishing thrusts while the snake hissed its triumph.

"That's how it will feel when he fucks you. When they all fuck you, you filthy whore."

Don't let it hurt you. It can only punish you if you think you deserve it. You don't deserve it. You haven't done anything wrong. That isn't our dream, Daniel, and he can't make you stay there if you don't think you deserve it. Close your eyes and believe me. It's not real. It's not real. This isn't your dream…

Daniel dragged a sobbing breath into his lungs, tears of pain blurring his vision. No, he could feel that hot salt trail trickling down his face, but that wasn't why he couldn't see. Dark. It was very dark and quiet. The pain had stopped. The pain had gone completely. As though it had never been. 

He was back on his sleeping bag, still naked but with the dark wrapped around him, and those bare feet were running to him faster than a thought.

"It's okay, Daniel, it's okay." The good dreamer pulled him into his arms, and he clung to the man shakily. The man rocked him comfortingly, pulling Daniel's face in against his neck, rubbing his back. "You mustn't let him get you out of the circle. Don't leave the circle. You're safe in the circle as long as you believe it."

Believe what? He didn't know what he had to believe.

"Believe you don't deserve to be punished."

Images flooded his mind. Milk spilling from a pitcher he'd broken trying to reach up and pull it down even though he'd been told not to have any more. Stolen cookies. An Etruscan vase shattered on the floor, the anguish on his mother's face. The chain snapping, falling, crushing them. His grandfather backing away from him. Money he'd stolen from his foster mother's purse to pay off a bully at school. Lies he'd told. Things he'd left undone. He'd opened the gate. Sha're! Oh God, he had a wife. He hadn't known. He hadn’t known anything until this moment. He'd had no past. Lived for the moment. He had a wife, and he was cheating on her.

"Sha're's dead, Daniel. She's dead. She loved you. She wanted you to be happy."

She was dead because of him. He'd opened the gate. Let them take her. She was pregnant, and he hadn't saved her. She was Amaunet killing him, and now she was dying because of him.

"No, Daniel! No!" The good dreamer shook him hard and then pulled him back into his arms, rocking him, sounding close to tears himself. "You haven't done anything wrong."

Whore! Cheat! Liar! Cheated on your wife, did you? Cheated with a Goa'uld? Let her take the seed from you? Let her fuck you like the whore you are?

Daniel moaned, burying his face in the good dreamer's neck, breathing in the scent of him desperately, trying to push everything else from his mind except these arms around him, this skin against his face, this stubble rasping at his cheek, that scent, that wonderful scent. He didn't want these memories. He didn't want any memories. He wanted it to be how it had been before. Just the dark and the moment and the two of them.

"We can't go back. We have to go forward now."

The good dreamer still rocked him gently, planting kisses in his hair. "It'll be okay if you trust me. You have to trust me. You're a good man, and you don't deserve to be punished. Please, believe me. Believe me." The good dreamer lowered him gently back onto the sleeping bag. "Nothing else that happened here tonight was true. Only what happened between you and me. That was the dream. Other people's dreams don't count. They can't hurt you if you don't let them."

The good dreamer brushed his lips across Daniel's eyelids, putting the protective kisses back. "Go to sleep, Daniel. Trust me. Believe me. Go straight to sleep."

This time when the good dreamer left him, Daniel repeated his last words over and over, drugging himself, not letting any other thought get back, not that damned snake hissing to remind him how it had fucked him. It hadn't. The good dreamer had told him it hadn't happened and the pain had stopped the second the good dreamer had found him so it couldn't have been true. Not that jaguar licking the kisses from his skin. The kisses were back now. And not the man from the shadows who called him a whore. He wasn't a whore. He wasn't. He wasn't. He wasn't…

***

Daniel wondered why he was so damned tired. He'd stayed in bed for most of the previous day, slept all night, yet woken up feeling like someone had opened all his veins. Jack had insisted he had a virus and needed to rest. Not sleep. He'd been very adamant about that. Daniel had to rest but not sleep. Otherwise he wouldn't sleep at night. Jack had spent most of the day doing what could only be described as 'weird stuff' outside the teepee and having long consultations with Ankana which Daniel had just found too difficult to follow with the cotton wool clogging up his mind. 

"…to hell, Ankana, don't you know what that son-of-a-bitch did to him last night…?"

"You said it yourself, O'Neill. It wasn't real…"

"… felt pretty real to him when that goddamn snake was fucking him… Why the hell can't I warn him?"

"He won't believe you…"

"You don't know that. He's open to all kinds of things…"

Round and round over and over. None of it making a whole lot of sense. Jack sounding so angry and tense. Talking about someone being in danger, unable to protect him…

"…hurt him, Ankana. It really fucking hurt him. He screamed... He really thought he deserved… I didn’t know. How could I know he thought so little of himself…?"

"You must try to persuade…"

"…I can't! How the hell can I undo all that in a couple of nights? We're talking twenty-eight years of insecurity here…"

He wasn't even sure how much of that had been real as Jack seemed to have been talking in English and Ankana in Hetari, so for all he knew he'd drifted off to sleep again. He had fallen asleep a couple of times but Jack had come bouncing into the teepee like a mountain goat on steroids, yelling 'Wake up, Daniel!' every time he closed his eyes so he'd grumbled a bit – well, make that a lot – but made the effort to stay awake for most of the day. 

Jack had done a lot of strange things with little fires, burning herbs and sprinkling powder and chanting things and walking in circles around the teepee so many times in the course of the day Daniel had got dizzy just thinking about it. When Daniel had asked for an explanation, Jack had told him it was to do with the Hetari ritual and every brave had to protect his teepee from the coming battle with the spirits of the underworld. Which might have been reasonable except for the fact every other brave very conspicuously wasn't doing stuff with circles and herbs and fires outside his teepee. Jack had explained that the others could do it much faster than he could; this was all new to him so he was just making an early start. Daniel had nodded as though everything Jack was telling him made perfect sense. Privately he'd wondered how long it was since Jack had been given a psych evaluation.

He'd toyed briefly with his earlier idea of contacting Janet Fraiser but he was just too tired, wiped out, drained. Couldn't do it. Jack didn't seem to be running a temperature and he was eating okay. He'd just have to trust he was still all there in the upper-storey and was just…getting in touch with his spiritual side.

Daniel sighed as he realized he was now even more tired than when he'd finally been permitted to fall asleep on the previous night. This was Day Six after the first ritual though, right? The second ritual would take place on the evening of Day Seven. Then, thank goodness, he and Jack could go home and get back to normal. 

Daniel frowned. Where was Jack anyway? Not asleep, of course. That would be too much to hope for, that the man might actually stay in bed until a civilized hour of the day. 

Unwilling to leave the warmth of his sleeping bag but with a full bladder that was brooking no argument, Daniel got up and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. As he stepped outside the teepee into the misty morning he found Jack. The man was wearing only his pants again and he had what looked like smears of paint on his arms. He didn't actually have a feather in his hair but he looked damned close to it to Daniel. He was currently engaged in arranging little pebbles in strange shapes around the teepee.

"Are you making a rock garden?" Daniel enquired mildly.

Jack jumped then glared at him. "Why are you awake?"

"I need to piss if you must know." As he made to head towards the creek, Jack reached out and grabbed his arm. Daniel glared at him. "Damn it, Jack, you can't control my bladder as well as everything else."

"Keep away from the creek."

"Okay. Why?"

"There are more crocodiles."

Daniel frowned. "Here? Up this high? In fresh water?"

"They'll be gone soon."

Jack said it like he wanted to believe it was true but wasn't certain.

"Why?" Daniel wrapped the blanket around himself more warmly.

"The swamp got a bit bigger but it'll go again. Just watch where you're walking and keep away from the water. And the swamp obviously. And the trees. In fact – just piss around the back of the teepee."

Daniel rolled his eyes in disbelief and headed for the birch grove nearby. No way was he relieving himself in public just because Jack was going interestingly insane.

As he passed the totem he felt an irrational sense of fear. Daniel made himself look at it. A big snake coiled around the pole with a snarling jaguar on the top. Snarling? It hadn't been snarling before had it? And he didn't remember the snake having its head like that, twisted around so it could look at passers by with such malevolence. For a reason he couldn't even guess had, he felt a flicker of shame and self-disgust as he passed the totem. It had to be the virus, he decided. Perhaps Jack wasn't the only one going nuts. But how typical of Jack that the only place they'd ever been to where no one would talk to Daniel about their history, customs or culture, Daniel had been given permission to take as long as he liked. If Ankana had ever treated Daniel like anything other than a mentally retarded ten-year-old, Daniel could have been having a ball.

As Daniel headed for the birch grove he realized something was wrong. Badly wrong. The birch grove was gone. Absorbed. Subsumed. There was swamp there now. Mangroves and mist, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, a greenish light, something slithering out of the…

Daniel staggered. He felt very sick. A chill brushing fingers across his skin but he could feel sweat trickling down his spine, gray and cold as the morning. He stumbled again and put out a hand to steady himself against the nearest tree. The bark felt rough against his fingertips, and he unzipped his pants quickly with his other hand; vision blurring as he tried not to piss on his own bare feet, hearing his urine hiss as it hit the ground, hot droplets searing his toes; hissing… A snake wrapping him in his coils. The hot breath of a big cat preparing to… The cat had been going to do something to him. Not bite him, even though its jaws were so close to his throat. Something else. Something he deserved because he was corrupt, depraved… He pressed his forehead against the tree, fighting off a wave of nausea. This was one hell of a virus. He seemed to be heading for delirium now. Had the hissing stopped? No, it was louder. Odd because he wasn't urinating any more.

He zipped himself up quickly, fingers fumbling a little as he did so, then turned around, still resting a hand on the tree to steady himself. That was odd. Daniel shook his head to clear it. He was sure he'd come in along that little trail… But he'd only taken a few paces into the swamp, he'd pissed against the first tree he'd come to. His bladder had been pretty insistent about that. Something was still hissing.

"Jesus!" Daniel leapt back just in time as the snake's fangs closed on air. For a second he stared into its eyes and saw they were yellow, pitiless; cold as a knife blade quartering a corpse, a hypnotic gaze. The head was beautiful and terrible, the scales a greenish black. Worse than the fear was the recognition. Daniel looked into its eyes and read in them how this creature had already defeated him once. Fucked him once.

"What?" he stumbled backwards, knowing this had to be delirium, the swamp couldn't have taken the place of the birch grove, there couldn't be an anaconda hanging from a tree gazing at him with the contempt of the victor looking on a beaten prey. No, he was still asleep. Still dreaming. None of this was real.

The snake lunged, and its jaws went straight through the blanket to fasten on his shoulder. Daniel yelled in pain and shock, staggering backwards. The snake bit deeper and it felt as though his entire shoulder was going to come off. "Get off me!" Daniel tried to struggle, blood oozing up from the deep puncture wounds in his shoulder to soak the blanket but every time he moved the snake just bit deeper, paralyzing not just his shoulder now but all his left arm, the numbness spreading down his side. He reached for a sidearm that wasn't there, remembered belatedly that Tehuani had turned it into a snake. "Jack!" He remembered the man had been outside the teepee. "Jack! Help me! Jack! It's Daniel! Help! Jack! Jack!"

The bullet went straight through the snake's body. It twisted furiously, dragging Daniel with it as it coiled and writhed. He was slammed against the tree trunk, winded, feeling himself starting to go rigid with the shock of the blood loss, but gaze now fixed intently on the man standing with that sidearm in his hand, pulling the trigger over and over. The snake swung Daniel against another tree trunk, bruising him cruelly, then back against the first one as it screamed fury into his wounded shoulder and writhed at every shot.

"Take my hand!" 

Daniel tried to reach for the hand Jack was holding out to him, but the snake swung him away, buffeting him against yet another tree. "Jack!"

Jack pumped another three bullets in the snake and then reloaded, jamming in another clip, face unreadable. For the first time Daniel realized that Jack was still outside the mangrove swamp. The man held out his hand again. "You have to grab it, Daniel."

"Come closer!" Daniel protested. He could feel the blood pouring down his left arm, faintness threatening to intervene. What the hell was wrong with Jack? Why didn't he come down here and help him?

"I can't," Jack told him tautly. "It's going to swing you this way again. You have to grab my hand, okay? Grab it." He aimed and fired.

The snake screamed again then bit down on Daniel's shoulder savagely, the pain so intense the world blurred, wavered, began to go white around the edges.

"Take my hand!" The yell jolted him back to sentience and as the snake angrily dashed him at the other tree, Jack's hand briefly swung into focus. Daniel grabbed, held. And then Jack had him by the wrist and yanked Daniel towards him hard.

Daniel fell into the sunlight, hitting the ground in tangle of blanket and limbs, only half of which were his own. His fall was cushioned by something and didn't hurt as much as he'd expected but it was still jarring.

"Damnit, Daniel!" 

Daniel belatedly realized that the thing cushioning his fall was Jack. He felt very cold despite the warmth of that blood pouring down his arm, and his body was trembling violently, starting to go into convulsions. No, mustn't do that, had to stop the shaking. Jack wriggled out from underneath him, rolling over to look at him anxiously. "Christ… Stay with me, Daniel. Just stay with me."

Cold. Pain. Shaking, couldn't stop the shaking. He was losing so much blood. Could feel it pouring from his shoulder, a heated trail of warmth leaving his body in a viscous red tide which would leave every vein drained, ice-water where his marrow had once been.

"Daniel!" Now Jack was shaking him. Oh God that hurt so much.

"Jack, don't… Please… Hurts…"

"It's not real. You're not wounded. You're not bleeding. Do you understand me?"

No, he didn't understand him. Of course he was wounded. Of course he was bleeding. He could feel the wound, a throbbing agony in his shoulder, the holes the serpent's fangs had left feeling as though they had been seared by a hot poker…

A hot poker ramming itself inside him. The snake had fucked him. He'd read it in its pitiless yellow eyes. Fucked him because he was a whore and fit for nothing else…

Jack was wrapping the blood-soaked blanket around him, picking him up, grunting with exertion as he did so. The world spun as Daniel was lifted up, blood loss leaving him so faint he could hardly stay conscious, a new hissing sounding in his ears. Jack started to run, stumbling over the rough ground, swearing, panting, sweating; the jolt of every step a new lance through Daniel's shoulder.

"Ankana!"

He knew that yell. That was Jack's desperate voice. He'd heard that tone when Jack had screamed at Skaara to stop killing him. Even locked in the agony of the ribbon device, he'd heard Jack. He'd heard the bullets too. His fault. It had been his fault Jack had been forced to shoot Skaara. Everything was his fault…

"Ankana!"

Jack tripped and fell heavily to his knees, spilling Daniel onto the ground. Daniel cried out as the pain lanced through him.

"Help him! Please!"

There were people all around him. Daniel could make out Jack's face, dripping with sweat and a look of anguish in his brown eyes. Braves Daniel only vaguely recognized, picking him up and carrying him towards the teepee he shared with Jack. And there was Ankana, looking grave and resting gnarled fingers on his forehead. "He must help himself."

"Ankana, damnit to hell…" Another snarl from Jack, despair and defeat combined. He sounded like a wolf with its foot in a trap.

"You know it. Make him understand the truth. Make him fight back. It must come from you. He will only listen to you."

Daniel cried out as they placed him on his sleeping bag. Every movement was agony. He could feel fever throbbing through his limbs. Poison. The snake obviously hadn't been a constrictor after all but some kind of enormous cobra. No wonder the wound was hurting so unbearably – it was full of venom. He could smell pus already. Turning his head, Daniel saw green ooze mingling with the blood turning the blanket sodden with gore. "Oh God…" He didn't know if he was going to throw up first or faint, but he was definitely going to have to do one or the other.

"No, Daniel." Jack's fingers felt hard on his jaw jerking his head around and making him look in the man's eyes instead of at his wounded shoulder. But he wanted to look at his shoulder; it had the same terrible fascination as a road accident. He had never seen a wound spill so much blood so fast in his life. 

"It's not real."

Daniel said hoarsely, "That mind over matter stuff isn't going to work here, Jack."

"Damnit, you have to listen to me. Believe me." Jack's gaze was unblinking; those brown eyes capturing his gaze and not letting it go. "Trust me. If you're ever going to trust me, now is the time."

Daniel gaped. Ever going to trust you? When have I ever not…? Wait at minute, that was his line. He'd said that to Jack. And later Jack had been very pissy about it, started yelling about all the times he'd trusted Daniel as though Daniel had done him some terrible insult. But he knew Jack didn't really trust him. In his heart, Jack thought he was flaky. Always had done, always would. It was just one of those things.

"Daniel!"

He jolted with the shock of that shout by his ear. Jack was pulling him up and he really wished he wouldn't. Moving hurt, it hurt so much. "Jack – please…"

"You're not hurt. There was no snake. It didn't bite you. It wasn't there. There is no blood. Look at me, Daniel, damnit, do as I'm telling you. Look at me!"

And how the hell could he look anywhere else when Jack was snapping the words out like that. He felt like a snake himself now, one who'd just met up with a really mean mongoose. It was as if Jack had managed to plug himself straight into Daniel's nervous system because all he could see were those unblinking brown eyes boring into him. Even when Jack shook him he only whimpered slightly as the pain jolted through him, unable to blink himself. Jack's fingers were digging into his shoulders. "This is real." Jack squeezed his shoulder harder. "Can you feel that?"

"Yes!" Daniel protested.

"That's all you can feel. There is no other pain. There was never a snake. There was only Tehuani fucking with your head."

And suddenly Daniel realized what Jack was talking about. It was the greased wooden phallus being jammed inside him as he lay bound and helpless. The crocodile that never was. "Not real…?" he gasped it, trying to breathe through the pain, trying not to feel the blood still pouring down his arm, trickling down the back of his hand, warming and staining all his fingers before cooling to a glutinous second skin.

"Not real. Never happened. Keep looking at me."

Daniel swallowed hard but did as Jack said, gazing into the man's eyes, reading the truth in them.

"Trust me, Daniel," Jack breathed. "You have to trust me. I'm not lying to you and you’re not hurt. No snakebite. Not a scratch on you. Nothing. Unbroken skin. All you can feel is my fingers. Tell me you feel them?"

Jack squeezed even tighter and Daniel felt it through the blanket pressing into his skin. "I feel them."

"And that's all you feel."

He couldn't look away and it was like he was seeing Jack for the first time. His hair was a lot grayer than Daniel remembered it, such beautiful shades and tones, like wolf fur, each hair a mixture of different colors, the kind of hair you wanted to bury your fingers in and stroke. He didn't remember Jack having all those fine lines around his eyes either. They suited him, gave him character. Jack was… He wasn't sure what Jack was. Jack was just…Jack. Safety. Comfort. Home. All of those things. Lots of annoying things too but they didn't ever seem to matter that much because the essential core of…Jackness was so damned right even its flaws just seemed like they needed to be there or something significant would be lost. But Jack was also…

Just like the wolf skin in Anakan's wigwam. Why didn't he know what Jack's hair felt like when it was touched? Because he couldn't go around touching Jack's hair for crying out loud! Jack would freak. Jack would… Jack was always ruffling his hair, of course, but that was different. Jack was a tactile sort of person; he could get away with that kind of thing. Daniel couldn't. He'd learned that after his parents died when people had made it very clear to him that touching was forbidden. It would seem really weird if he touched Jack, especially to Jack. The man always shoved him away if he woke up and Daniel was fussing over him…

"Daniel?" Jack's voice could be so soft at times. He could be very gentle. People didn't always realize that about him. In the really bad times you could wrap that voice around yourself like a blanket and feel so much better.

"Tell me what you feel?"

Jack was stroking his hair. That felt nice. Funny that Jack should do that just when he'd been wanting to touch Jack's hair. The pain had gone, which was nice as well. "Fine," Daniel said. "Absolutely fine."

"What do you feel?"

"Your fingers."

"Where?"

"In my hair." Daniel blinked, the surprise in Jack's eyes alerting him he'd said something wrong. He'd been drifting off there, floating out to bye-bye land in some weird little fantasy rowboat. He tried to cover up because Jack wasn't touching his hair, why the hell would he be? He was holding his shoulders. "I mean – my shoulders."

"Okay." Jack gently lowered him down onto the sleeping bag. "Now, are you hurt?"

"No." He didn't look at his shoulder just in case the red-stained blanket tricked him into thinking he was bleeding to death again. "Not hurt. Just tired."

"And was there a snake?"

"No." Daniel frowned. "No snake. But did I really piss because if I didn't I need to do that again?"

"No, you really did that." Jack patted his shoulder gently, reaching across to snag a blanket from his own sleeping bag and covering Daniel up with it. "You can rest, but you can't sleep. Understood?"

"Understood." Might as well say he understood even if he didn't. If he was honest he hadn't understood much since the day they arrived in the Hetari settlement, but at least Jack seemed to know what was going on, so as long as one of them did…

He drifted on the very edge of slumber while Jack and Ankana had one of their impossible conversations in two languages, words flickering in and out of his head like radio interference

"…too damned close, Ankana! …son-of-a-bitch almost…"

"….come too far to stop now…. no way back from… only go forwards…. Just as you told him."

"… talking relationships… not skipping down the road to Hetari hell..."

"You knew what…"

"…didn't!…didn't know squat….know what the fuck I was getting either of us…way over my head…screw up – which I will…way worse than dead… Tehuani takes him to that…can't get to him…won't be able to save him…"

"Only he…send himself to the underworld….told me Daniel trusted you…."

'Daniel'? People were talking about him? 

Daniel thought about waking up properly but being attacked by imaginary snakes and not losing several pints of blood could really make a guy feel exhausted. Had Ankana said something about him trusting Jack? Well, if the only problem they were going to have to face could be solved by him trusting Jack there was no problem anyway and Jack could stop worrying now.

"…does! Damnit…always has…" Jack's voice cracked a little then, and Daniel winced in sympathy.

"…why I asked you to help us. Because he trusts you above all other men, and in his dreams he loves…"

"He's still awake, remember."

No, he was losing it, a radio station he couldn't tune in any more. He couldn't get the words to make sense. Ankana was talking quietly and urgently, a lot of things about dreams. Trust. Daniel trusting Jack; well, he had that right. Jack having to see something through. Too late to stop it now. But a lot of stuff about the dream and the good dreamer and the bad dreamer that made no sense whatsoever. What was that? He was only getting one word in three of what Jack was muttering, but it definitely sounded like the guy had been having some seriously hot dreams. Well, lucky old Jack and who would have thought he had it in him? Daniel would just bet Mary Steenburgen had featured in there somewhere…

Daniel looked at Jack from under lowered lids. The man had slumped down onto his own sleeping bag and had his head in his hands. He looked very tired. "I'm – I'm just not sure I can do this."

"Doubt is Tehuani's greatest ally. Do not let it into your heart."

"Sorry, I think it's already set up shop and is sending out for pizza."

"O'Neill." Reproof and warning combined.

Daniel heard Jack sigh. Saw the man lift his head, running a hand through his hair as he did so, revealing more of those fascinating contrasts of brown and flecked gray. "Okay. I know the score. We've come too far. Only way is forward. I know all that stuff. But it's going to get so much worse before it gets better."

Ankana rested a hand on Jack's shoulder, face uncharacteristically gentle, like a father talking to a favorite child. "Each man can only do his best." He touched the paint mark on Jack's arm briefly like some kind of good luck charm and then turned away.

Daniel heard Jack sigh it quietly as the teepee flap swung shut behind Ankana and the other braves: "Yeah. I'm just not sure this man's best is going to be good enough…"

Daniel closed his eyes, hating to hear that defeat in his voice. It wasn't like Jack to start questioning his own abilities. Believe in yourself, Jack, he thought it as hard as he could, trying to project it straight into the man's mind where it could do some good. Believe in yourself the way I believe in you…

***

Jack ducked under the flap of the teepee and stepped out into the darkness, needing a last sight of the stars before he began this night's dream-duel. The air was cold, winter in its breath despite the season supposedly being summer. The swamp was getting closer, the sound of the owls in the birch trees drowned out by the croak of frogs, the soft splash of crocodiles sliding from the mud bank into the water, quiet and dangerous as an unguarded thought.

He hadn't had a craving for nicotine in a long time. He'd waited to go into battle so many times before, sitting somewhere in the cold, or the rain, or the baking heat of a desert, with night falling around you like a gray-mauve shroud, or dawn gradually overlaying the darkness, and that was when you really wanted a cigarette. Knew you couldn't have one, of course, the puff of your smoke could be the signal which gave the enemy warning you were coming, but God how you wanted one. And he wanted one now. Two more nights. Right now, they felt like an eternity.

In the beginning it had seemed to be about him and Daniel. Stuck in this impasse where he knew Daniel loved him but Daniel just didn't, was so deeply in denial they could go on like this forever, kissing each other through their dreams and then back to being workmates every morning when the sun came up. Never remembering. Never realizing. 

He believed the dreams were something Sha're had left them. She'd done so much for Daniel both in that year on Abydos and in the moments before her death. Absolved him, absolved Teal'c, given Daniel leave to stay a part of SG-1, told him to forgive his friend, given him a quest, something he could do for her to help alleviate his sense of failure. That had been a hell of a legacy to leave anyone but given how much she'd loved Daniel perhaps it hadn't been so surprising. But the dreams…

He'd had dreams about Daniel before Sha're's death, but they always been about loss: Daniel burning, Daniel bleeding, Daniel dying. Daniel being captured, or injured, or worse, because Jack had somehow failed to keep him safe. He'd never had a dream in which he and Daniel lay there on a sleeping bag and he kissed every inch of that smooth, warm skin until after Sha're's funeral. And he was sure he'd heard her voice, heard her whisper, "Go to him…" just before he'd found himself dreaming he was walking across an earth floor to where Daniel was lying there asleep. Jack had realized he was naked and looking down on the sleeping man had seen Daniel was too. He'd crouched down next to him and stroked Daniel's hair, very gently, marveling at its softness. Daniel had stirred a little, and it had seemed like the most natural thing in the world to bend down and kiss him. 

It had taken him a while to realize it was dark where Daniel was, the way Daniel had to do everything by touch, a man voluntarily blinded. He'd willed him to open his eyes and look at him but Daniel just wouldn't. Wouldn't look at him, wouldn't let any light into the scene, wouldn't acknowledge in any way that he knew who it was kissing him and touching him. But he'd responded, and Jack had told himself that was enough. He'd woken up the next morning with only a vague feeling of mingled contentment and confusion. The following morning he'd remembered more. Then still more. He knew he should have been shocked at himself but it had just felt so…right. It wasn't hurting Daniel, and it wasn't Jack's responsibility that he was having these incredible dreams. And waking up with his skin tingling with pleasure and the memory of someone he loved responding to his lips against theirs got every day off to the best possible start. 

Then they'd come to this world, and Ankana had told him he and Daniel were dream-joined. That Daniel was sharing every dream. That this wasn't Jack's subconscious feeding him mangled memories, hopes, and fears; this was a place where they met. It happened sometimes to people who had become very closely connected, especially when they were meant to be together and something in the physical world was keeping them apart. Daniel's denial, in this instance. Apparently born of Daniel's feelings of inadequacy, his lack of self-confidence, his conviction Jack couldn't really want him. Fears Jack couldn't disprove when Daniel's rigid lockdown on his subconscious wouldn't allow him to get even a glimpse of what he really wanted, what his dream-self melted at receiving every night. It didn't matter how gently Jack kissed him, nuzzled at him, licked, nibbled, stroked and caressed him; didn't matter how often Daniel arched his back, whimpered, panted, gasped, and shivered ecstatically in response to his touch; the Daniel who woke up each morning was still as clueless about his real desires as the Daniel who fell sleep every night. 

Jack had wanted to scream with frustration. He knew Daniel loved him. He knew Daniel wanted to be with him, forever, but Daniel didn't know it, and until Daniel worked it out, his hands were tied. He had to wait for Daniel's subconscious to stop slamming the door in his face, and Daniel's subconscious had clearly had the crap kicked out of it so often in the past it wasn't taking any chances. Jimmying that damned door open with the chisel of a few well-chosen words had been very tempting more than once, but he'd always swallowed them down. What if he told Daniel they'd spent the previous night ecstatically writhing together in the dream-dark? Daniel would just tell him he hadn't had any such dream and he thought it was high time Jack saw a therapist. No, he had to wait for Daniel to realize the truth. Something Daniel had proven himself very skilled at conspicuously failing to do...

Well, all that was going to change tonight. Ankana had talked him into this damned duel with Tehuani, and maybe he'd been insane to ever agree to it, but the prize for success had been so great: Daniel realizing he was in love with Jack and Ankana's people delivered from a terrible fate at the hands of a power-mad evildoer who wanted to drag them all down to hell with him and make them his slaves. He and Daniel loved each other so damned much how could they fail to defeat Tehuani…? 

Except he'd forgotten this was Daniel they were dealing with. Not the brilliant scholar who was his best friend, who trusted him with his life, relied on Jack to rescue him from trouble, who was so physically comfortable with him he'd go to sleep with his head on Jack's shoulder, and was so in tune with him they could practically read each other's minds. No, there was the other Daniel to think of too. The one who could be undermined by an ill-chosen word. The one who thought Jack didn't trust him. The one who had to hug himself because he didn't think anyone else would. The guy so fucked up by foster parents who hadn't loved him and a fate that had stolen everyone he'd cared for over the years that he snatched his hand away like he'd burned his fingers if he touched Jack by accident because he was so damned scared of being rejected. That was the Daniel he'd forgotten to factor in to this particular equation. 

And that was Daniel Tehuani was trying to get to, had already gotten to more than once. That was the Daniel who might get dragged down to hell and who could take the whole Hetari tribe with him.

Jack would be left behind in a very different hell of his own making. The hell of having delivered Daniel to the devil for all eternity.

He grimaced and looked back inside the teepee. Daniel was asleep. Not quite dreaming yet, but soon. Time for him to go and take his place in the world of the unconscious. Ankana had taught him how to be asleep and dreaming within seconds, better even than that kel no reem stuff of Teal'c's, so he always knew he could get to the dream-place now. And tonight he was going to get Daniel to open his eyes and ask him to stay. Tonight he was going to get Daniel to say his name. Get Daniel to acknowledge that he had known all along who the good dreamer was, he just hadn't realized it. They had to wrap things up tonight because Tehuani was getting so damned strong that by the time another twenty-four hours had passed, Jack didn't think he'd be able to defeat him.

He wished he had a glowing cigarette butt to flick away into the darkness, the firefly spark of it something he could watch hiss and fade as it made contact with the earth. You could count off a lot of time in nicotine. How many cigarettes you smoked as your wife suffered in labor; how many as you waited while the surgeons struggled and failed to save your son's life…

Don't think of your defeats. Think of your victories.

He knew the drill. Positive thinking all the way, right? Well, nothing could alter the fact that he and Daniel knew each other like they knew themselves, and they loved each other more than life itself. Maybe that was all they had going for them, but they didn't need anything else. Tehuani was toast.

As he thought it, Jack sensed rather than heard there was someone behind him. He smelt pig grease, rancid, disgusting. As he wheeled, something hit him; not an imaginary snake, a wooden club straight to the temple. As the world first exploded into a pinwheel of white lights then faded rapidly into blackness, Jack realized that even if he could defeat Tehuani in the spirit world, in the real world, the guy had just knocked him out cold. Stranded in the wrong part of unconsciousness he had no way of joining Daniel in the dream-dark. Tonight, Tehuani was going to get there first.

***

Daniel awoke in the dream-place and smiled. Dark, quiet, warm, just the way it always was and always would be. Any second now he would hear footsteps. And here they were, soft on the earth floor…He frowned. Something was different. These weren't the usual footsteps, bare feet on beaten earth, yes, he could hear those, but something else as well, something slithering, rippling, and the pad-pad-pad of something heavy and quiet.

As greenish light exposed his nakedness like an accusation, Daniel realized who it was here with him. The bad dreamer, the snake, and the jaguar. All here to fuck him because he was a whore. The good dreamer wasn't coming. The good dreamer had abandoned him like all the others before.

He sat up, trying to pull himself into the smallest shape possible, to protect himself from their contempt, wrapping his arms around himself as tight as he could. He wasn't going to look at them but they were pressing at the corner of his vision: the tall dark figure, the big cat padding around the circumference of the circle, the snake slithering in the opposite direction, both of them testing the circle of light for weaknesses. 

"Whore! Filthy whore…I told you he'd tire of you, and now he has. He's had his fun, taken everything he wanted but now he's leaving you for me to do with as I like. He's looking for another now, one who isn't seeped in sin, corrupted, disgusting, depraved…"

Daniel put his hands over his ears. He wasn't going to listen to this. It wasn't true. None of it was true. The good dreamer loved him. The good dreamer would come for him. He would wait in the circle, and the good dreamer would come.

"So why isn't he here? Why wouldn't he fuck you? Because he knew every beast in hell would rut with you like the filth you are…."

Daniel began to rock backwards and forwards, pressing his hands even harder against his ears, but the words were still getting through. So were the doubts. Why hadn't the good dreamer come to him? And he could remember so many bad things he'd done now. People had died because of him. He'd taken life. There was blood on his hands. His wife had died. He'd let her be taken, then failed to find her in time, let the demon inside her make him her prisoner; she'd died because of him…

He cried out with the shock as the snake slid up his legs. As he tried to struggle free it lashed out, sinking its fangs into the inside of his thigh. The yell was torn from him before he could bite it down. It ripped its teeth from his skin, and he saw the bright blood turned greenish-black by the swamp light as it trickled down his leg; venom oozed from the snake's fangs. Poison. He'd been poisoned. 

"Oh God…." Daniel felt the paralysis creeping through him, like liquid metal filling his veins, heavy, cold, dead.

The bad dreamer laughed. "Now you're helpless. My pets can doing anything they want with you."

Daniel tried to struggle but he couldn't get his body to respond. He could feel everything with agonizing clarity, feel the muscles of the snake's body contracting as it wrapped itself around him with sensual deliberation, rubbing its scales against his skin like a mocking caress. It rolled him onto his hands and knees. He tried to struggle into a different position, but none of his limbs would respond. The jaguar was purring in his ear, the stench of rotting meat blasting him from its furnace breath, the hacksaw rasping vibrating down his neck. It licked his face, wet tongue coarse as sandpaper against his cheek. He tried to dig his fingers into the sleeping bag, tried to move his knees together, turn his head, something, anything, but the venom had left him rigid and hypersensitive to touch. When the snake coiled around him mockingly, body squeezing his ribs tight and then relaxing against them again, he could feel it with agonizing clarity. He heard the pad-pad of the jaguar's feet as it moved away from his face and then there was a weight pressing down on his back, fur against his skin, heating it unbearably, strong forepaws wrapped around his waist.

He tried to scream, but his throat was frozen. The jaguar's grip tightened, the snake hissed triumphantly in his ear as it let its flickering tongue explore that vulnerable cavity, and then the jaguar's teeth closed on his shoulder as it forced its cock inside him, cruel and deep. The double-pain made his throat jerk spasmodically, his mouth snapping open as the agony tried to make itself felt but he still couldn't get any sound to emerge. The cat fucked him with strong, deep thrusts while the snake tightened its coils around him, pulling them tight around his belly so it could feel the heat of the jaguar's cock bruising him from the inside through the fragile barrier of his skin. The snake's muscular coils pushed him back against the jaguar's penetrating thrusts, making each one deeper and more punishing. Daniel was trying to drag air into his lungs, gasping as the pain jolted through him like electric shocks, burning, tearing, bruising him deeper and deeper. The sweat was pouring from his body from the pain and heat of that furry body pressing down on his back. The cat's grip tightened abruptly, and he felt its semen pumping inside him, burning fluid searing him shamefully.

It lay on top of him for a moment, breath rasping into his shoulders, and then it pulled out of him and padded away. Semen trickled down the backs of his thighs, cooling on contact with his skin, smelling of bitter musk and abject defeat. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the cat lie down at the bad dreamer's feet, flicking its long tail as its ribcage heaved. Fucking him had obviously momentarily exhausted it, but it would recover. Daniel didn't think he ever would.

"That was only the first of a hundred," the bad dreamer told him. He could hear the contemptuous smile in the man's voice. "Now it is Ajauca's turn."

He knew that word. It was a bad word. Worse even than the snake or the jaguar. Something crueler more savage. Something…

He heard something heavy and short-legged stumping towards him, a waddling movement, something long and low and very large. Daniel shuddered with horror as he saw the crocodile emerge from the darkness and come straight for him. There was no question of keeping it out of the circle. He still had the jaguar's semen drying on the backs of his legs, proving he was something fit only to be fucked by beasts.

Ajauca clearly agreed, waddling towards him at considerable speed now, body weaving as it drove itself forward with swipes of its scaly tail. The snake hissed in his ear again, clearly relishing the prospect of his next rape. He tried to struggle, but his limbs were heavy and dead as granite, petrified with shame.

He felt the crocodile haul itself up onto him, its weight crushing, the scales scraping against his skin. The snake tightened its coils in anticipation. The crocodile reared up on top of him and then lashed its heavy tail, forcing itself forward and inside him.

Daniel screamed silently and heard the bad dreamer laughing in delight. 

"Fuck him like the filth he is, my beauties. Fuck him until no man would ever look at him again."

Daniel felt rage and shame and pain jolting through him as the crocodile thrust its scaly phallus deep inside him, body twisting eagerly as it rammed itself into him again and again. The violence of its rocking thrusts shook the snake's coils loose from their stranglehold upon him, releasing his ribs and letting him snatch a breath even as the bruising pain tore deep inside him over and over.

"No!" His own shout alerted him to the fact his throat was no longer frozen. Abruptly the paralysis was gone, and he could scream at them to get off him, get away from him, to stop it, stop it, stop it. He began to struggle, trying to kick out while the crocodile tightened its grip and fucked him harder, the snake wrapping even more coils around him to hold him still, hissing a savage warning in his ear.

"No!" He didn’t care if they killed him, started eating him while he was still alive; they were getting off him right now. He kicked out and caught the crocodile in one back leg, dislodging it. He lashed out desperately with his other leg and it slid down a little further, stubby forelimbs trying to grip him while he wriggled, kicked, elbowed, struggled, swore, bit and yelled at them to get the fuck away from him…

Daniel! Don't leave the circle! He's trying to make you leave the circle. Don't let him…

He could see light somewhere over to the left, a rectangle of it, and his heart leapt. He had to get away from these lizards and get to that light. Daniel jabbed his elbow savagely into the snapping crocodile's jaws and the crushing weight finally slid from his back. He rolled over, trying to hurt the snake as much as it had hurt him, biting it hard behind the back of the neck, clawing at its eyes, trying to grab its tongue and tear it out of his head because these fuckers had no right to do this to him. Fangs and jaws snapped a warning at him, but another well-placed kick caught the crocodile right on the end of the snout and it backed up. The snake was hissing furiously but it was also uncoiling from him and his stabbing fingers and biting teeth.

"Piece of filth!" the bad dreamer snarled at him.

Daniel kicked out again and the crocodile retreated another unwilling pace. Tears of pain, and humiliation were streaming down his face. No amount of hot water was ever going to wash the stench of these beasts off his skin, cleanse the memory of those reptilian coils rubbing against his body, the sensation of the jaguar's come drying on the back of his thighs, the weight of the crocodile on his back as it plunged inside him again and again. He was soiled now. They'd won, fine, but he still wasn't taking any more of this. The light beckoned to him, and he ran to it.

Daniel! Don't!

The light was a doorway. He could see that now. The jaguar had leapt to is feet, fluid bounds bringing it closer and closer; the snake was slithering across the ground in front of him trying to trip him up but he jumped it and kept running; the crocodile lunged at his bare legs, but he jumped it too. There was music coming from the open door, warmth, people. Escape. 

No, Daniel! Don't leave the dream-place that's what he wants you to…

Daniel dived through the open doorway and slammed it shut behind him.

***

Daniel moistened his lips deliberately, then reached up and unbuttoned the next couple of buttons on his shirt before bending back over the pool table and trying to assess his shot. While Daniel was eyeing up the white ball, his opponent in the red-checked shirt strolled around the table, pool cue in his hand, walking behind Daniel again as he did so. There wasn't a lot of space around the tables, and the bar was really heaving tonight, but all the same there didn't seem any reason for 'Hank' to get quite so close. Well, only one reason anyway. Daniel felt the man's jeans-clad groin brush lightly against his own jeans-enclosed butt as the man squeezed past. He bent his head a little lower to hide a smile.

His heart had been thumping pretty hard when he'd first walked in here, wondering if he was going to get the shit kicked out of him, but the truckers and trailer-dwellers who called this bar a home from home hadn't been as scary as he'd feared and a couple had made it clear that they were prepared to give him more than a pool game.

He'd been very glad to get back from that damned mission to Hetari. Jack had acted really weird for the whole week, and Daniel had learned nothing at all about the Hetari culture. He felt like something had happened on the planet which he couldn't remember, something important, but he didn't know what it was. He'd started getting some strange flashbacks to things that hadn't happened. The smell of a man's aftershave, his naked skin rubbing against another man's skin, his smooth chest lightly tickled by the chest hair of a stranger; and better even than those tantalizing fragments, a callused hand fondling his balls and cock, stroking and pulling him to the best damned climax he ever remembered. The taste of cock, salty and bitter against his tongue. The creamy gush of semen warming the back of his throat. It was like being addicted to the sarcophagus all over again, something he'd had and just had to have again. 

He'd been drawn here as much by the scent of male sweat and engine oil as the lure of warmth and the oblivion beer might bring. Jack had told him he was drinking too much, but then Jack wasn't being tortured every goddamn night by the memory of perfect, guilt-free sex with some faceless fantasy guy. Daniel had tried giving himself some relief, but it wasn't the same. He needed to feel someone's else hand, a man's hand…

The guy in the red-checked shirt wandered back into view, and Daniel took the shot. He missed. But then neither of them had expected him to sink the ball in that pocket. That wasn't what this was about. The guy hadn't bought him all those beers as a consolation for losing the last four games either. He'd bought him a beer because Daniel had been wound up when they both needed him to relax. Daniel was very relaxed now, warm, a little drowsy, pretty drunk if he was honest, and very ready to go have a little whisky chaser in the trucker's cab.

'Hank' sank the last three balls no trouble at all, then looked across at Daniel, visibly assessing how many inhibitions he had left. Not very many judging by the smile which flickered across the trucker's face. "You got a name? I told you mine."

Daniel blinked in surprise. He probably shouldn't give this guy his real name, but his mind was a bit of a blank. "Da- Samuel Paxton. Doctor Samuel Paxton."

"Is that right? Well, Professor. I think we can say I beat you fair and square."

"I guess we can."

A woman's voice on the jukebox was singing something in a Southern accent. Asking someone called 'Jolene' not to take her man. Daniel looked around at the men in the smoky interior. A lot of them were wearing checked shirts; some of them were looking at him. Hank had spoken to a couple of them, nodded at others. It had been made clear Daniel was with him and being with Hank seemed to mean he was safe. He felt a flicker of something, a memory: Safe. Comfort. Home. Someone. Something. Darkness and warmth and absolute safety. One of the waitresses was telling a customer about coming home to find her husband in bed with her cousin and what she thought of both of them. Daniel couldn't help thinking what a pretty word 'whore' was when you said it in a Southern accent. 'Ho-ah'. It sounded like an exotic flower, not an insult at all. Nevertheless the word made him uneasy, and he felt a sudden sensation of shame uncoil in the pit of his stomach. That feeling had been with him all evening, but he had found drowning it in beer reduced its power considerably. He reached for his beer glass where it was sitting on the edge of the pool table and downed the rest of it in a couple of gulps. It was very hot in here. He could feel sweat trickling down his shoulder blades. 

Hank's voice made him jump. "You being an educated man you probably want something better than this horse piss to drink?"

"Whatever you say." Daniel was very willing to go with the flow here. He didn't really know what he was doing, and this 'Hank' clearly did. The guy wasn't bad looking. Late thirties maybe early forties, hair going a little gray, in need of a shave, hands rough, jaw a little heavier than Daniel had been hoping for, but Hank did have brown eyes. That was the first thing Daniel had checked. The guy had to have the right kind of hands, and he had to have brown eyes. He had no idea why, but he knew that was very important.

"Why don't we take a stroll out to my cab and I'll let you get a taste of that single malt I was telling you about?"

As they exchanged a glance they both made it clear they knew whiskey wouldn't be all Daniel would be tasting that night. Daniel felt his stomach knot with a mixture of fear and excitement. He felt like someone poised on the top of the diving board, but he'd been standing here so damned long he really wanted someone to give him a shove in the back to make him jump off.

 

The cold air of the car park made him stagger, and he was glad of Hank's arm around his waist steadying him. The man whispered something in Daniel's ear so dirty Daniel giggled with the shock of it. He'd seen that word written down but he'd never heard it said aloud before. "That is really – disgusting," he giggled again, hysteria tugging at him because he was so fucking scared of what he was doing here but so excited as well. Hank slid a hand down to Daniel's butt and patted it lightly. "Well, that's a real nice tight little ass you got there – shame to just use it just for sitting on."

Panic and arousal did a little dance in his throat. He didn't know if he wanted to sit on Hank's lap or run away now. The memory of that warm hand from his dream bringing him to climax reminded him of why he was here. He wanted this. He wanted this bad.

Hank pulled open the door on a big truck and invited Daniel to jump on in. It seemed a long way up and Daniel was ungainly scrambling up there. Hank shoved him from behind, hands lingering on Daniel's ass to give it an approving squeeze through the jeans. "Real nice, Professor."

Hysteria lapped in Daniel's chest, and he tried to stifle nervous laughter, afraid that if he started he wouldn't be able to stop.

"Park that cute little butt of yours right there." Hank gave him a gentle shove into the passenger seat and climbed up next to him, pulling the door shut, locking out the night air and sealing them in with the smell of sweat, stale beer and anticipation.

"Let's get this down you. Loosen you up some."

Daniel took the bottle automatically and as the man made tipping and swallowing gestures did as he was told. The whisky burned a trail all the way down his throat to the pit of his stomach. The shame worm wriggling down there didn't seem to take too well to single malt. Another slug and he would barely be able to feel it squirming. Daniel gulped again then wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, eyes watering as he coughed at the kick of that last swallow.

By the time he'd recovered, Hank had taken the bottle from him and was beginning to unbutton Daniel's shirt.

Daniel gave a little gasp of surprise as hard fingers stroked his chest. "Smooth as a baby's behind. How old are you anyway?" Hank gave him a look of mingled admiration and amusement. "You're not jail-bait are you?"

"How old do you have to be?" Daniel had never really got to grips with the way the law could change from one state to the next. He knew he'd driven a long way from Colorado. Being here in a cab with a trucker he barely knew preparing to let the man masturbate him seemed to be about as far from Cheyenne Mountain as anyone could get. Hardly surprising if the laws were different here too.

Hank was unzipping his jeans now, a warm hand burrowing into Daniel's boxers. "Well, if your balls have dropped you're old enough for me, Professor. And here they are so I guess that's all I need to know." His hand cupped Daniel's testicles lightly, giving them an approving squeeze. "You a college kid looking for a bit of rough, or what?"

"No – I – " Daniel breathed in quickly as the man pulled his jeans down from his hips. This was too fast. It was all happening too fast. But this was what he wanted. He swallowed quickly. "Can we – I mean – "

His boxers were tugged down as well now. "This is what you wanted, isn't it? A real man to jerk you off?" Hank began to pull at Daniel's cock, slow strokes, hard, practiced. The pleasure was immediate, Daniel's cock hardening at once, responding instantly to those callused fingers pumping him. The shame kept pace with the pleasure, but he tried to ignore it; he was bad to want this, bad to get drunk and let a man do this to him, but he could be punished for it later, right now he had to have it, had to have this pleasure even though it was so soiled and sinful…

As the pleasure began to fry Daniel's drink-befuddled brain, he could hear Hank saying, "Feels good, does it? Well, you have a good time there. Gonna be my turn in a minute."

Pleasure tore through him, savage, lancing through his nerve endings, he cried out, shuddered, came.

He woke to find someone lightly slapping his face. "Come on, sweetpea. Rise and shine. My turn now." Hank was unzipping his own jeans as he spoke, and Daniel recoiled as a stranger's cock was suddenly standing erect in front of his face, veined and leaking. He reached out tentatively but Hank shook his head. "No, not like that, pretty boy. This time I sit, you kneel."

Befuddled by beer, whisky and the aftershocks of orgasm, Daniel let the other man tug him from his seat in the cab and shove him to his knees on the floor. He dislodged a beer can which rolled across the interior, leaking weak spurts of liquid as it did so. He could smell cigarette ash as well as beer and old semen. A hand closed on the back of his head, tightened in his hair and then his face was being pulled down in a graceful arc, something thick and slippery being slid into his mouth. He coughed and the hand tightened, pushing the cock in deeper. "Come on, Professor, suck me like we both know you want to."

He did want to as well. He'd been hungry for this as well as the hand touching him. The sour taste of this in his mouth, the weeping tip bruising the back of his throat. This was what he wanted, to be on his knees in a puddle of spilt beer and cigarette ends swallowing a stranger's come. This was all he was fit for. This was all he deserved. This was what he dreamed of.

Hank pushed in deeper, his hands on the back of Daniel's head not letting him pull back. Then his fingers tightened on Daniel's hair, and he began to jerk his hips, pumping his cock into Daniel's mouth hard and fast, using him like something inanimate. 

As Daniel struggled for breath, that eager cock filling his throat, the cab door opened and the cold air blasted his side. He heard the stamp of feet, some whistling, then the door shut again. As he hovered on the edge of consciousness, almost blacking out as the air barely reached his lungs and Hank pumped into him deeper and deeper, he could hear Hank grunting like an animal, telling him to take it, every fucking inch, take it, take it…

He came around gagging, stomach heaving as he vomited up beer, whisky and semen onto a crushed can of beer.

"Well, I guess he ain't never done that before."

A voice he didn't recognize. Daniel wiped his mouth, lifting his head to see two men who weren't Hank. Hank himself was putting his cock away carefully, zipping himself up. He jerked his head. "Professor, meet Jed and Billy-Bob."

Are people really called Billy-Bob? Daniel decided that was a thought he probably shouldn't share but he abruptly felt very alone; kneeling in a puddle of his own puke, shirt unbuttoned, pants down by his knees, the taste of the last man's come still in his mouth, and two other men eyeing him up like he was dessert. He suddenly realized this had all been a terrible mistake. He didn't want this. Those dreams had driven him to this. Corrupted him somehow. For the first time he realized that Hank wasn't a nice guy whose callused hands could give him a pleasure. Hank was the kind of guy who picked up what he believed to be a drunken grad student in a bar, tipped whisky down his throat then made him suck him off. The kind of guy who'd told his friends to give him five minutes and then come on over and join the fun. Daniel was going to pay a very heavy price for that hand-job.

 

"Pleasedon'tpleasedon'tdon't…don't!"

Daniel tried to struggle into a different position but Jed was a lot stronger than he was and very determined to get what he'd come for.

Billy-Bob had taught him to give good head at gunpoint. "That's the way…very good. Now swallow. Again. Open wider. You can take me in deeper than that. Gag all you want to, sweetheart, sooner or later you're going to learn to breathe through your nose…"

He'd made a dive for the cab door after that, but Jed had grabbed him back and punched him into submission. He didn't know if his nose was broken or not, but it had certainly bled a lot, the metallic salt flavor of it mingling with the aftertaste of two different men's come in his mouth. Now Billy Bob was driving them somewhere Daniel was very sure he didn't want to be taken while Hank and Jed played with Daniel in the back of the truck. Jed wanted to make it three different semen flavors Daniel had to swallow while Hank was very eager to make good on the promise he'd made Daniel in the car park. The prospect of the two of them fucking him at the same time seemed to excite them as much as it filled Daniel with horror. 

He didn't know who that drunken idiot had been who'd wanted a man to jerk him off so much he'd got into a truck with a stranger, but he knew he didn't want this, definitely didn't want any of this, never wanted another man to touch him as long as he lived. Another slap stung his cheekbone, and he felt himself slip a further rung down the ladder of consciousness. They had him kneeling over an old roll of carpet, Jed's hand twisted in his hair, Hank's fingers eagerly fumbling at his ass; he was trying to twist his head away from that erection Jed kept thrusting at him. Now that he knew begging wasn't going to help he was just concentrating on keeping his mouth closed. Another slap. "Open your goddamn mouth, you little cocksucker."

On another occasion Daniel might have pointed out that Jed's choice of insult seemed particularly unjust under the circumstances but as things were he just kept his teeth gritted. The blood from his nose was running down to drip onto Jed's angry-looking erection, crimson drops spattering it before trickling down its vein-pulsing length. Even the sight of it made Daniel want to gag but that would involve opening his mouth so he swallowed down the bile burning his throat and kept his mouth closed.

"I'll open his mouth for you." 

Daniel felt something hard and wet rubbed against his opening, a tease, no a threat, the head of Hank's cock being forced between his ass cheeks to let him know what was coming.

"Be a good boy and I'll break out the corn oil," Hank told him. "Otherwise you can take it as it comes."

"No…" Daniel couldn't stop that pitiful whimper escaping. He couldn't be here. This couldn't be happening to him. He worked for the Air Force. He had top-level clearance. A job he loved. How had he got himself into this position? He was going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere, naked, covered in bruises and blood and other men's semen, a sordid, disgusting way to die. Jack would know what he'd been doing. The police would follow the trail back, make their report to General Hammond All the people in that bar had seen him flirting with Hank. Jack would know he'd gone off willingly with a guy he didn't know. He'd probably think Daniel did that all the time. Had been doing it for years. Oh God no, let them bury his body somewhere it would never be found. Let Jack think Maybourne had executed him and zatted the body to leave no evidence. He'd endure anything rather than Jack ever seeing him like this; knowing Daniel had ever been in this position. He would literally rather be dead.

"Please don't do this." Daniel tried to twist his head free to wipe the blood from his mouth but Jed's grip just tightened. As he stared up at the man his features swam in and out of focus; a scar fading in and out on his forehead; the eyes changing from hate-filled coal-black then back to contemptuous gray.

"Open your mouth and we'll make it easy on you, otherwise you're not going to be able to use this ass for sitting on for a month."

"I can't…" Daniel looked at the obscene blood-spattered head of Jed's cock and couldn't believe he'd ever willingly taken one of those things into his mouth. "I can't…"

The hammering on the side of the truck was so loud Daniel almost left a handful of his hair in Jed's hand as he jumped.

"Daniel!" 

Jack! Daniel could see the scene so clearly he might as well have had x-ray vision. Jack in his jeep, someone else driving, maybe Sam or even Teal'c, Jack leaning out of the window slamming his MP-5 against the ridged metal of the truck.

"Daniel? Are you in there? Daniel!"

Bent over that roll of carpet, his pants down around his ankles and with two men getting ready to fuck him, Daniel died inside at the sound of Jack's voice, the shame worm bloated into a full-size serpent now. Hank and Jed were frozen; Hank's cock softening against the back of Daniel's thigh, leaving a sticky trail of precum against his skin as it shrank back into itself.

"Christ, it's a guy with a fucking machine gun!" Billy-Bob hissed it to them in horror.

Daniel's mind worked furiously. Jack must have picked up his trail at the bar, gone haring after him, maybe he'd gotten the license plate or perhaps he was just trying every truck he passed.

"Daniel? Are you in there, Daniel? It's Jack. Call my name. I can't help you unless you call my name."

Daniel cringed, trying to duck his head lower. He'd rather be dead than have Jack see him like this. Anything was better than Jack seeing him like this. Even Hank and Jed was better than Jack seeing him like this. He kept his mouth closed.

"Daniel!" 

He flinched from that agonized yell but he wasn't going to answer it. Never, ever, ever. Jack mustn't see him like this. Jack mustn't ever know that he'd asked for this.

Daniel felt the hot tears sting his eyes. Mentally he whispered I'm sorry, Jack, so sorry, but I can't. I'd rather lose my life than your respect. Anything would be better than that. Go away. Please, go away… Please…

"God, Daniel!" More hammering on the truck. "Don't do this to yourself. Don't let them do this to you. You don't deserve this. You never wanted this. Don't let them hurt you like that. Daniel!"

The tears fell faster as he flinched from the anguish in Jack's voice, but he kept silent. After a pause while time seemed suspended, he heard the jeep engine move away. 

"Well, well, well…" Hank's face appeared by his. "Ain't you the mystery? Didn't want soldier boy to see you in the altogether? Or are you just having too good a time with Jed and me?"

"I won't tell anyone," he managed, body shaking with the sobs he was trying to suppress. Not fear, he'd gone past fear hours ago, just the terrible shame and remorse at what he'd just done to Jack.

"Too damned right you won’t tell anyone," Jed told him thickly.

Daniel…?

He could hear a voice, but no one else seemed to. Jed was still telling him what they were going to do to him once they'd fucked him the first half a dozen times. About the friends they were going to share with him. How afterwards he'd take a hunting knife and separate Daniel's skin from his flesh. How if Daniel was really lucky he might be dead by then.

Don't let them hurt you any more, Daniel. You haven't done anything wrong. You don't deserve this. Do you understand me? You don't deserve this. All you did was fall in love. It's okay to fall in love. It's okay to let people touch you when you love them, and they love you. This isn't the same. You don't have to be here. None of this needs to happen.

The good dreamer sounded so very weary and sad. As though he'd fought a great battle and lost.

Take my hand, Daniel. Let me take you back to the dream-place. Take my hand.

He couldn't hear Jed and Hank anymore. When he cautiously moved his head, no one's fingers were touching his hair. Daniel blinked. Suddenly it was dark and cold. He was somewhere that was nowhere, some place between sleeping and waking. Somewhere dark, but no, he was in a circle of light. He turned over cautiously. The shadow of the good dreamer stood on the edge of the circle holding out his hand. Daniel swallowed and then reached across and gripped the man's hand. The man said softly, "Good boy, Daniel."

A second later it was dark, and he was lying on his sleeping bag in the dream-place. His nose wasn't hurting any more. Nothing was hurting any more. Even the shame wasn't squirming in his guts like the worm in the bottle of tequila. He closed his eyes, relief flooding through him. He was back in the protective womb of the darkness. Nothing could hurt him here.

The good dreamer kissed his eyelids gently, licking the salt away. "None of that was real. The crocodile, the jaguar, the snake. Not real. The bar wasn't real. None of those men were real."

Daniel gasped with the relief of it and buried his face in the good dreamer's neck. The man rocked him in his arms. "God, Danny, I nearly lost you. Why didn’t you call to me? Would you really rather be dead than let me save you from the scum of the earth?" 

Daniel didn't know what the man meant. He just knew the good dreamer was with him now, that wonderful scent was his to inhale and savor, he could rub his face against that familiar stubble, feel the soft chest hairs warm his own smooth skin, bury himself in this man's arm and know he was safe here, would always be safe here.

Only if you trust me, Daniel. I can only keep you safe if you trust me. 

But he did trust the good dreamer. He trusted him absolutely. That was why he'd taken his hand without hesitation. That was why everything was okay again now. None of the things that had happened tonight had been their dream, which meant none of them mattered, and they were already dissolving like smoke being sucked into a fan. He could hardly remember any of it; music, heat, men in sweat-scented shirts, the bitter taste of whiskey on his tongue… No, it was fading, and he was glad to see it go. None of it had ever been real. Only this was real. Here with the good dreamer kissing the top of his head and rocking him in his arms. He wondered why the good dreamer's heart was beating so fast, as though he'd struggled through some ordeal, or suffered a terrible fright. Daniel kissed his neck gently, wanting him to know it was all right now; everything was all right now.

The good dreamer held him even tighter. The voice in Daniel's mind sounded desperate this time. 

Ask me to stay. Ask me to stay until you fall asleep or I can't keep you safe. Please, Daniel, please…

Daniel swallowed and whispered the words into the man's neck, hoping that if he said them softly enough they might not rip the fabric of this fragile dream:

"Stay. Please stay."

The good dreamer gasped and then lifted his head up. Two thumbs stroked his eyelids gently, then the man sighed. "It doesn't matter. I can stay. At least I can stay." 

Daniel snuggled in against the good dreamer's chest and listened to his heartbeat slowing from that frenzied pounding of before to something approaching normal. He could smell sweat on the good dreamer's skin. Terror. He wondered what could have frightened the good dreamer so badly and tightened his grip in return. Wanting to keep this man safe whom he loved so much. But he'd asked him to stay now so whatever it was couldn't hurt him as long as they were together. Daniel wouldn’t let anyone hurt the good dreamer. Not ever.

The good dreamer eased them both down onto the sleeping bag, Daniel sighing in contentment as he felt the man's warm skin against his face, those strong fingers playing with his hair. The good dreamer still seemed resigned to something, but Daniel would make him happy again. He had to go to sleep now, but when he woke up the good dreamer would be there with him and they would be together forever.

Only if you say my name, Daniel. Only if you say my name…

Daniel wondered why the good dreamer still sounded so sad. He knew his name. He was the good dreamer. He was everything he'd always wanted and never thought that he would find. And now they could be together always.

***

Daniel woke in the gray-blue dimness of the teepee. He could hear breathing nearby, but not the usual regular sound of Jack's chest rising and falling, harsh breaths. He reached for his flashlight, groping myopically for the switch. The beam of light seared his eyes then threw a circle of blue onto the far side of the canvas, a swirling pattern like a miniature Stargate event horizon. That breathing definitely sounded labored.

"Jack?" Daniel said the name softly, moving the beam of the torch so it illuminated his teammate. Jack was facing away from him, still dressed in his BDUs, slumped on top of his sleeping bag with his jacket unbuttoned. Daniel ran the flashlight beam up the other man's body, finding it strange to see Jack piecemeal like this, in segments of blue-lit uniform, a long leg in sections, a bony hip, one hand resting on the ground, the tips of his fingers clearly visible, his brindled hair – 

Daniel frowned and got up onto his knees, leaning closer. There was something wet and dark in Jack's hair. He felt apprehension tighten in his chest. "Jack!"

The man stirred, twisting over. "Get away from him, you sons-of-bitches or I swear to God I'll – "

"Jack?" Daniel rested the torch on the blanket and gently touched the man's hair. Wet darkness came off on his palms, sticky as flypaper. 

"Daniel?" Jack blinked up at him in confusion and then sat up so fast Daniel automatically jerked his hand back. "Are you okay? Why didn't you call my name?"

Daniel took a deep breath before saying gently, "Your head's bleeding. I think you're concussed. Do you know who you are? Where we are?"

Jack stared at him blankly for a second and then put a hand up to the back of his head. "Tehuani. Fucking piece of shit. I should have known he wouldn't play by the rules."

"What rules? Play what?" Daniel wondered if he ought to dial up the gate now and get Jack straight back to the infirmary. He could have a fractured skull.

"He must have laid me out. My own stupid fault. I should have known he'd try something like that." Jack examined the blood on his fingertips and scowled. "Son of a bitch!"

It was already several degrees lighter outside. Daniel darted a glance outside the flap of the teepee. "I think we ought to get you home, Jack…"

The man stared at him as though he'd lost his wits. "Daniel this is the seventh day."

"Your head is bleeding. Your skull may be fractured. You're probably concussed." Daniel pushed back the tent flap to try and get a little more light onto the subject and then craned his head to get a better look at the wound.

Jack waved him away impatiently. "The seventh day, Daniel."

"And if we were talking about Genesis here, I'd say that was highly significant but right now I'm a little more interested in the way your head is bleeding." Daniel reached for the medikit, getting out lint and antiseptic. He sloshed a generous measure of the second onto the first and then did what Janet always did, saying, 'This may sting a little…' before slamming the lint on the wound quickly before Jack had a chance to get out of range.

"Je-sus!"

Daniel wrapped an arm around Jack's chest to hold him still while still keeping the lint held tightly against the back of his head. "Stop wriggling. I need to clean the wound."

"It feels like you just tipped a bottle of sulfuric straight into my brain!"

"You're such a whiner, Jack." Daniel cautiously lifted off the lint and peered at its crimson-stained surface. When he carefully parted the blood-clotted strands of graying hair he could see a jagged cut in Jack's scalp. It didn't look too deep, and the wound appeared clean where the blood had seeped out, but he guessed there was probably a lot of bruising around the edges of it. "Do you have a headache?"

"Well, I do now…" Jack muttered, but he was being unusually good about leaning back against Daniel's body and letting him dab amateurishly at the wound. Still with his arm around Jack's chest, Daniel found himself inhaling the man's scent, a mixture of warmed skin, blood, sweat, and faint traces of gun oil. It was an oddly comforting aroma. He put his face close to the wound and smelt the metallic odor of fresh blood; Jack's hair tickled his cheek, surprisingly soft. The man sighed and pushed back against him. Daniel wondered if he'd passed out. It seemed so unlike Jack not to be struggling out of his grasp, telling him not to fuss for crying out loud. Daniel inhaled that scent again and wondered why he was doing this, sitting here, very aware of Jack's warmth, the way Jack had just placed himself in Daniel's care… Trust, of course, that was what this was about. Jack trusted him. The same way he'd trusted Daniel when the knowledge of the Ancients had been downloaded into his brain. Daniel spent so much time thinking about how much he trusted Jack he didn't always remember to tell himself how much Jack trusted him too. A smile he couldn't suppress tugged at his mouth.

"I'll get you some Tylenol for that headache." He reached for the medikit, curiously reluctant to disturb the man whose back was warming his chest.

Jack twisted his head round and looked at him. "Thanks, Daniel."

He felt oddly moved by Jack's gratitude, lowering his gaze as his fingers closed on the edge of the medikit, very aware of Jack leaning back against him, the way his hair had brushed against Daniel's cheek. He held out the aspirin and Jack took them, swallowing them down dry. Not bitching or moaning the way he usually did. Daniel frowned. That was a point, Jack wasn't bitching or moaning. That couldn't be right. Perhaps he was brain damaged. He said softly, "Really think we ought to get you home and get Janet to look at your head, Jack."

"No." Jack pulled forward and Daniel let him go at once, snatching his arm away before Jack got mad. 

The man turned and looked at him, putting a hand up to the back of his head as he did so, strong fingers probing the wound with a matter-of-factness Daniel barely recognized. Suddenly he realized who he was looking at: the Jack O'Neill who'd got himself back from the desert with all those broken bones. The Jack who could cope when he had to and didn't even need to fuss while he was doing it. Except this wasn't an emergency; they weren't stranded, and Jack didn't have to stagger around with blurring vision and a thumping headache. "We can come back if you're okay." Daniel said it in his best coaxing voice.

Jack looked at him like he was the one who was brain damaged. "Daniel, I don't think you understand the situation here."

"I understand Tehuani tried to kill you last night, and if we delay getting your skull x-rayed he might still succeed. You might have a subdural haematoma."

"It's nothing."

"Jack…?"

"Daniel." That was a fierce look from Jack and momentarily Daniel thought of the wolf skin he'd been lying on in Ankana's wigwam. The wolf and the eagle. The jaguar and the snake. Animals of the day and animals of the night. Anasazi and Maya. Two cultures colliding. Two consciousnesses colliding. Magic and reality. Except the magic was real here, and the reality was illusion and… He had no idea what he was thinking any more.

"There ought to be more carvings on the totem pole." Daniel blinked in confusion. "The snake and the jaguar aren't protective spirits here, they're the guardians of the unconscious, of the spirit world. Where are the guardians of the daylight world?"

"O'Neill."

Daniel jumped at the sound of Ankana's voice and turned around to see the silver-haired chief standing in the doorway. His gaze was fixed on Jack. "Are you hurt?"

"I'll live." Jack got to his feet.

"He kept you from the dream-place?" The horror in Ankana's voice sounded all out of proportion to such an esoteric concept. Daniel looked to Jack for an explanation.

"Let's say I arrived a little late." Jack swiped the dust from the back of his pants as he stood up.

"Was he…?"

"Could have been very nastily dead in a ditch off Route 40, but he wasn't."

"Then Tehuani took the battle into your world?"

"Oh yeah. Guilt. Shame. Dolly Parton. All the stuff we talked about. Worked a treat too."

"But he let you help him?"

It was odd; Daniel was understanding every word in that he recognized everything Jack was saying in English and he recognized every word Ankana was saying in Hetari. But it was like someone had taken those words, jumbled them up in a bag like scrabble letters and then joined them up in a completely arbitrary order because nothing either of them was saying was making any sense.

Jack shook his head. "Nope. Not me. Would have let them kill him before he'd let me see him like that. Would love to know who did that number on him when he was growing up. Then I'd like to put the guy in a place where he'd be drinking his dinner through a straw for a very long time."

"You told me he did not judge men. That he was open to all cultures and customs."

"He doesn't judge other men, but he sure as hell judges himself."

"Then Tehuani will win."

Daniel wondered why the hell they were both looking at him like that, sad and stern and full of regret, like he'd done something terribly wrong but they weren't going to blame him for it because it wasn't his fault. He also wondered if Tehuani had hit Ankana on the head as well last night. That might at least explain why he and Jack were talking in riddles and apparently understanding each other so easily. He moistened his lips. "Um – Ankana, I really think I ought to take Jack back home with me and get our – healer to take a look at that cut on the back of his head…"

Ankana turned to Jack. "Doesn't he understand? Even now?"

"No, I told you. He wouldn't let me help him."

Ankana glared at Daniel in disapproving disbelief. "How can you be so blind?"

"I – um – " Daniel blinked. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Do you not understand the danger you are in?"

"Look – I – Jack's the one who got hurt here. I really don't see what…"

"Ankana!" 

They all looked around as a brave appeared in the doorway. Daniel remembered the man from his dream. Daniel had almost fallen asleep on this guy's lap. He was very glad no one else knew about that dream.

The brave said urgently. "The circle of standing water: it glows."

"Hammond must…" The crackle from Jack's radio finished the sentence for him.

"Colonel O'Neill? Doctor Jackson?"

Jack picked up the radio and held up a hand to Daniel. "I'll take this outside."

Daniel opened his mouth to protest that the message had been for him too, but Jack was already gone. It was much lighter outside now, the rose-pearl light of dawn flooding the interior of the teepee. Daniel realized he'd left the flashlight on and reached across to switch it off. The way Ankana was staring at him was making him uneasy. He looked up at the man, tone a mixture of pleading and defiance. "What have I done wrong?"

"How can a man as wise as you are be such a stranger to himself?"

Daniel had a sudden recollection of the Monk on Kheb saying 'But you have your own burdens of which to rid yourself…' He'd said 'okay' because he was ready to agree to anything to have the boy handed over to his care, but he'd had no idea what the man was talking about. He still didn't. He tried to rally. "Well, I guess we're all a mystery to ourselves at times."

"Why do you think yourself unworthy of the love of others?"

Daniel swallowed. "I don't."

"Why do you blame yourself for things that never were and never could have been your fault?"

"I don't."

"Why did your parents die?"

Because I didn't warn them.

Aloud he said, "It was an accident. It was no one's fault."

"Why did your wife die?"

Because I was an idiot. I opened the gate. I let Apophis take her. I didn't save her on Abydos when I had my chance; if I'd done what Teal'c said straight away, she would have been safe in the SGC when the baby was born. We could have saved her. If I hadn't let Amaunet…

"Teal'c had no choice. He did the right thing."

Ankana shook his head. "Your shame will drag us all into the underworld. How can you not know who it is that you love? Even now?"

Sha're. The name came to him at once. Unhesitatingly. He loved his wife. What was so wrong about that?

"Not amongst the dead! How can you not know who you love amongst the living?"

Daniel frowned in confusion. He tried to pick his words carefully. Ankana was clearly very exasperated with him and he didn't want to offend the man further. "There are so many different kinds of love. Can you be more specific?"

"Love! True love! The love most men dream of for a lifetime and yet never even glimpse. How can you have found it and not even know that you have done so?"

When Ankana turned around and walked out of the teepee Daniel put a hand up to the back of his own skull. No, there was no cut there, no bleeding. Which was a pity, because if it had only been Daniel Tehuani had whacked around the back of the head with a blunt instrument then everything would have begun to make perfect sense.

Daniel was still carefully feeling over his skull for some hole when Jack came back in, face taut with anxiety.

"Problem?"

"You could say that." Jack ran a hand through his hair, wincing as he inadvertently touched his sore scalp. "I have to go back for a few hours. You stay here and, Daniel, this is very important, you have to stay awake and alert. Don't leave the teepee, don't – "

"What's wrong, Jack? Is it Sam and Teal'c?" He felt the familiar anxiety clutching at him. The fear of losing more people he loved. How can you not know who you love amongst the living? But he did know. He loved these people as he'd loved the last family fate had granted him. Then stolen from him. His greatest fear was that he might lose Jack, Sam and Teal'c the way he'd lost his parents, the way he'd lost his life on Abydos with the woman he loved.

"They're overdue, but – " 

Daniel was already grabbing his pack, starting to roll up his sleeping bag.

"No." Jack's hand closed on his shoulder.

Daniel looked at him in disbelief. "We need to get back, help find them."

"I'm going back. You're staying here."

"Why?" Daniel couldn't believe he was hearing this. "It's not even as though we're doing anything here. Sam and Teal'c need both our help. What if something needs to translated? Deciphered?"

"Daniel, listen to me." Jack sank down onto his haunches so they were on eye level with each other, a hand resting on each of Daniel's shoulders. "These people are in terrible danger from Tehuani. I can't explain it to you. You just have to trust me. If you and I both leave, he'll win. I tried to explain the situation to General Hammond, but it's tricky, and it might take me a few hours."

"Jack?" Daniel was staring at the man like he was a stranger. "Weren't you listening to what you just told me? Sam and Teal'c are overdue. We need to find them."

"Daniel. Hear me, damnit!"

Hear me, my Daniel…

"You must stay here and you must do exactly what I say. You have to stay awake, and you have to stay in here, in this teepee, inside the circle…"

Daniel! Don't leave the circle! He's trying to make you leave the circle. Don't let him…

"I will find Carter and Teal'c, I promise, but you have to stay here, and I'll do my best to be back before nightfall, but if I'm delayed by something, if I don't get back you mustn't go to sleep. Do you understand? You have to stay awake until I come back. You can't leave the teepee, and you have to stay awake, now, are you clear on that?"

Daniel stared at him in disbelief. "I hear what you just told me, but it doesn't make any sense. Nothing you're saying is making any sense."

"Damnit, Daniel!" Jack shook him so hard his teeth actually rattled together. "Listen to me. Tehuani and I are at war. We are fighting for the soul of the Hetari tribe. You are in the middle of it. He can get into your dreams. If you sleep and I'm not here to protect you, Tehuani will do all kinds of horrible stuff to you. So horrible you won't be able to get back from it. You might end up in a coma, which is bad enough, but in your head you'll be in hell. Not Netu hell. All your nightmares come at once, hell. You must stay inside the circle, and you must stay awake."

Daniel didn’t know if he was more scared of Jack's fear or his psychosis. He stared at him, all the things he wanted to say about Jack surely being able to understand how crazy this sounded bubbling to the tip of his tongue and then dying there because Jack looked so damned desperate that even if he was talking gibberish, it was going to really upset him if Daniel didn't believe him.

"Daniel…" Jack cupped his hand to the right side of Daniel's face and Daniel had a sudden shock of memory of lying dying in a corridor and Jack touching him, just like this. "Do you remember when you came back from that Alternate Universe and told me all that stuff about us needing to save the world?"

"You didn't believe me."

"Not at first, no I didn't. But I did do what you wanted. I did go through the Stargate to the coordinates you brought back. And you were right. And then when you told me Sha're had communicated with you through the ribbon device – "

"You didn't believe me then either."

"Did we go to Kheb?"

Daniel swallowed. "Yes."

"Why did we go to Kheb? Because I told General Hammond we ought to make it a priority, that I believed Sha're had asked you to help find the boy, and he contained all the knowledge of the Goa'uld. It isn't easy for me to believe that kind of thing, but I believed you. Not at first, I admit. But in the end I did believe you."

"Yes. Yes, you did."

"Okay, well now you have to believe me. Even if you think I'm talking like a madman. Even if you think everything I've just told you is a total crock. You have to trust me the way I trust you. You have to believe me the way I believe you. Please, Daniel. Please?"

Daniel had a vivid memory of wanting Jack to believe him so badly it hurt. Wanting him to believe him just because it was Daniel telling him these things. How much it had wounded him when Jack didn't. He answered without hesitation. "I believe you. I'll do what you say."

Jack sighed with relief and took his hand from Daniel's cheek to pat him on the shoulder instead. "You'll stay in the teepee."

"Yes."

"And you won't go to sleep."

"No. Not until you come back."

Jack nodded. "Thank you. Wish I had some uppers to leave you but they don't hand them out the same once you leave Special Ops. I'll get Ankana to come and talk to you. Yell for him if you start to feel sleepy. Trust him. He'll help you if you let him."

"Don’t worry about me." Daniel tentatively reached across and touched Jack's hand, waiting for the man to wave him away like a bug, feeling a little warmer inside when he didn't. "Get your head looked at, and find Sam and Teal'c. I'll be fine, Jack. I'll do exactly what you say. I promise."

For the first time he saw a flicker of the old Jack O'Neill in the man's brown eyes. Jack got to his feet. "Damn. Never a tape recorder around when you want one. Keep safe, Daniel. I'll be back as soon as I can." He picked up his pack and was striding out into the dawn light before Daniel could remind him to be careful. He leapt to his feet to go after him but then stopped dead just inside the flap of the teepee. Maybe it was insane but Jack had told him to do it and he'd promised. He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Be careful!"

Jack raised a hand in acknowledgement but didn't look round, walking towards the Stargate so fast he was going to be out of sight in a few seconds.

Watching him go, Daniel found himself wondering if he would ever see Jack again. A chill pervading him he couldn't understand. He blinked and Jack was gone, a bend in the trees hiding him. The trees… Daniel suddenly realized that something really was wrong. There were no birch trees left. No birds singing. The Hetari camp was an oasis in the middle of a mangrove swamp now, the beaver dam was gone, the elk were gone, there was only the croaking of frogs carried quietly on the morning mist, and the soft splash of crocodiles sliding under the water.

***

"Here."

Daniel looked up to see Ankana in the entrance to the teepee, carrying a bowl of something hot. He wondered how the man had known how cold and hungry he was getting. He'd eaten everything in his pack but it hadn't helped. He wondered if Jack had found Sam and Teal'c yet, if they were okay. It was agony being left behind. He never wanted to be left behind again. He wanted to be helping not sitting here getting cold and tired and hungry.

Ankana sat down beside him and handed Daniel a bowl and a spoon. "You should eat, keep up your strength."

Daniel took the things offered obediently. "Can you tell me what's going on, Ankana?"

"Do you know how to become master of the underworld?"

Daniel blinked. "I think I could safely answer 'no' to that one."

"Tehuani does. It is dangerous, but it can be done."

"How?"

"Very rarely there are two who share the same dream. They meet in a dream-place. This dream-place becomes stronger each time they meet there. So strong that even one who does not share the dream can find it."

Daniel had a sudden vision of someone trying to pick up a radio signal, turning the dial and hearing static slide into sound.

Ankana nodded. "Just so. A signal, yes, that is a good analogy. The stronger the dreams, the stronger the signal. When two dreamers share the same dream, the spirit world is disturbed, powerful forces for both good and evil are released. As long as the dreamers are joined in the dream world but not the physical world, the spirit world is in chaos. This release of energy gives power to people like Tehuani. He can utilize the chaos for his own purposes. Only when they are joined in the physical world as well can harmony be achieved. Our people have always lived in two realms."

"The physical world and the spiritual world." Daniel said it automatically.

"Yes." Ankana waved a hand at the bowl. "Eat, you must eat. Keep up your strength." 

"So you're saying you can be…threatened in both realms?"

"Yes. Tehuani is dangerous in this world but in the spirit world he is even more so. If he were to enter the underworld through his own dream he would be trapped there, to be master of that realm he must convince another to go there and as long as that other sleeper is a prisoner in the underworld, the portal stays open for Tehuani. He can rule the underworld, and he can drag other spirits into it. He can drag our whole tribe into it and imprison us there. Already the process begins."

Daniel looked out at the mangrove swamps and knew Ankana was telling the truth. It made no sense, and it couldn't be possible, but this camp had been surrounded by birch trees and pines when he and the others had first arrived on this world, and now it was turning into the Everglades right in front of his eyes.

"And Jack has to stop him?"

"If Anhaya was achieved between the two who share their dream, Tehuani would lose all his power. We could banish him from the tribe and fear no vengeance from him."

"And how can 'Anhaya' be achieved?"

Ankana looked at him for a long moment. "That cannot be told, it can only be felt."

Daniel mentally counted to ten. Why did all his conversations with Ankana seem to end up in dead-ends. Okay, he would backtrack. "This business with the underworld. You said it was dangerous for Tehuani…?"

"Yes, he must convince another that it is his own dream which carries him to the underworld, a dream in which Tehuani has power and the sleeper has none. Tehuani will use the dreamer's weaknesses to convince him of this."

"What weaknesses?" It made Daniel a little uncomfortable the way Ankana was staring at him so fixedly while telling him all this.

"Shame. Guilt. Denial. Insecurity. The belief that he is unworthy of love; deserving of punishment. Once the sleeper is imprisoned there Tehuani can leave the door to the underworld open, drag other people of our tribe in there as soon as they begin to dream. If the sleeper would realize the dream was Tehuani's and not his own, he could still escape, and Tehuani would be trapped there, the door closed. Tehuani would be a prisoner of the hell he created for the sleeper, and he would suffer the fate he planned for the sleeper."

"If it's so dangerous, why would he do it?"

"Because he wants power, and to be lord of the underworld would give him all the power he deserves. He would become the chieftain of our tribe in both the spirit world and the physical world. All those who opposed him he would drag down to hell."

"And the first sleeper? What about him?"

"He would be Tehuani's to torment for all eternity."

"So, why wouldn't he try to escape?"

Ankana sighed and shook his head. "Because he believes himself deserving of punishment and because he could only be saved by exposing his true feelings to the one he loves. Something he has proven himself incapable of doing. Tehuani will make sure his situation is so shameful and degrading he would rather remain a prisoner of the underworld than have anyone else see him like it."

"Because he's an idiot, presumably?"

Ankana looked at Daniel for a long minute and then said very gently, "Because he has been hurt too deeply too many times."

"I don't understand." Daniel felt like he'd spent the whole damned trip telling people he didn't understand things, but every time they gave him an explanation they just made him more confused.

"He has known true loneliness and now he knows true friendship and love. He is so afraid of losing what he has he will lose everything trying to hold onto it."

Daniel looked around. "He's someone in the tribe? Do you know which of you he is? Can't you help him?"

"Only the good dreamer can help the sleeper. And he can only help the sleeper as much as the sleeper will allow him to."

Daniel could feel his head starting to throb and his broth was getting cold. He dug his spoon into it and took a dutiful mouthful, swallowing hard. "Who is the good dreamer?"

Ankana sighed and rose to his feet, laying a gentle hand on Daniel's head as he did so, like a Catholic priest giving absolution to a dying man. "That is the question the sleeper must answer if we are not all to be dragged down to hell."

After the man had gone, Daniel shook his head. He couldn't believe Ankana carried on like that when he was talking to Jack. Two minutes listening to that Monk on Kheb and Jack had been all out of patience, and Ankana was way more annoying than that Monk had ever been.

But you have your own burdens of which to rid yourself…

And okay, he wasn't stupid. He knew what Ankana had been trying to say. Ankana thought he was this 'sleeper'. Ankana was wrong, but that was what he thought. He must have told Jack that as well which was why Jack was so worried about him. SG-1 turned up, and suddenly the Hetari environment went all to hell. Tehuani was given extra power by some kind of schism in the spirit world and…And oh God what if it was Sam? Two consciousnesses joined in dreams: Sam and Jolinar. Sam had said she got scattered fragments in dreams. Perhaps she only remembered fragments but there might be a lot more. Dreams about Martouf, maybe? That made sense. It made a lot more sense than it being him and someone else. He needed to tell Jack about Sam, about the dreams. Maybe the Tok'ra would know some way to stop Tehuani. Sam could be in terrible danger…

Daniel was at the entrance to the teepee before he remembered his promise to Jack. For a second he hesitated. He was sure he'd solved the riddle of Tehuani's newfound power and it gave him an excuse to do what he wanted to do which was go and help Jack look for Sam and Teal'c. And if he was right and Ankana was wrong he wasn't in any danger anyway, Sam was. But…

He'd promised. Absolutely promised Jack he would stay here and do what he said. For a second he hesitated; this was all so insane and…

It didn't make any difference. He'd promised Jack he would do as he'd asked. Jack had asked Daniel to trust him and believe in him. If that meant staying here even when there was no reason to, then that was what Daniel had to do. That was what friendship was about sometimes. No one had ever said it was easy. Sometimes being Jack's friend felt like having to clamber over an assault course. And, if he was honest, sometimes being Daniel's friend probably felt like going for a swim in shark-infested waters with no trunks on. Jack had done his fair share of yelling and being unreasonable and Daniel had done his fair share of sulking and being unreasonable. Yet they were still friends, because they wanted to be, needed to be.

Daniel went and sat down firmly on the sleeping bag. At least it was starting to get dark. Perhaps Jack would be back soon. Very soon would be even better. And there was no point in getting up every ten minutes and peering into the dusk to see if he could hear the 'kerwhoosh' of the Stargate. He'd know when Jack was back because the man would be standing there in the entrance to the teepee telling him Sam and Teal'c were fine, and they could all go home now.

As Daniel felt his eyes closing, he jerked his head up. He had to stay awake. Okay, he could do that. Time to give his memory a little work out. Let's see if he could still name the forty-two judges representing aspects of Maat which must be named by the soul of the dead at the time of the last judgment. Maybe Amnut, the devourer, wasn't awaiting him but if he was wrong and Ankana was right, Tehuani might be.

Daniel sighed and began to recite: "O Far Strider who came forth from Heliopolis, I have done no falsehood; O Fire-embracer who came forth from Kherarha, I have not robbed…"

 

It had been dark for a while now. The stars were so bright he could see a serpent circling the sky; a raven with its wings outstretched. A lifetime ago a different set of constellations had revealed themselves to him and in doing so unlocked the mystery of the Stargate. He still remembered that incredible sense of achievement as he recognized Orion and realized he'd solved the riddle at last. So much had happened since then it sometimes made his head spin like the wormhole sucking him through itself to new worlds. He'd met his wife through that shimmering of blue light. Found one new family and then had it taken from him. And then he'd come through it again and found another one. Found Sam and Teal'c and Jack. They'd made a planet that had never seemed like home to him feel like somewhere he actually wanted to come back to. Wherever they were was home now. There had been a time when he'd never expected to be anything except lonely; when being by himself was just the way he always was. He'd see people walking past with partners, children, people who cared about them and had known it wasn't for him. Being unloved had seemed like a natural condition. He would no more have thought of complaining about it than he would about the color of his hair. 

He wrapped his arms around his knees. Jack had been gone such a long time now. Every time this happened he tried to tell himself not to be paranoid. They'd come back; they'd all come back. He wasn't going to be alone like that again…

He winced as he remembered waking up with a shorn head and a blank in his memory to be told everyone he'd ever cared about was dead. That was almost the worst thing Hathor had done to him, raping him had been nothing beside it. Putting a Goa'uld into Jack had been the very worst thing but telling him the others were dead had come very close. She'd told him Jack and Sam and Teal'c and Janet and the general were all dead, and he'd wanted to be dead along with them. God, he hated being left behind. That time Jack and Sam had been lost and he couldn't work out where they were. And that time he'd been stuck in the infirmary, and they'd all been whisked away to help fight those bug things…

No, he wasn't going to think about that. Wasn't going to think about Jack begging him to give the order to blow up that sub before he was eaten alive. Daniel, please…

Daniel closed his eyes. Next time he was going where everyone else was. He was never going to get left behind again. He was never going to run the risk of being alone again.

"Ankana sent me."

Daniel blinked and looked up. There was a brave silhouetted in the doorway of the teepee, being very carefully not to put even a toe across the threshold. There was a steaming bowl in his hand which he held out. Daniel got up with a sigh and reached across to take it. "Thank you."

"He says you must drink it all."

He sniffed the brew gingerly, and it didn't smell too bad. He sipped it, and it was warming and comforting. 

"All of it."

Daniel nodded. "I heard you. Tell Ankana I'll drink all of it."

"I am to wait for the bowl."

He wondered idly if this was the brave who he'd dreamt had got him drunk. Impossible to tell with the starlight behind his head; he couldn't make out any of the man's features. Daniel gulped the warm drink down quickly, it tasted faintly of juniper and something that might be poppies; hard to tell when he was swallowing it down so fast. It was certainly making him feel warmer so perhaps it had some alcohol in it. Actually it was making him feel… As he tried to get up to give back the bowl, he realized the teepee was revolving slowly. A lot of alcohol in it, perhaps, but Ankana knew he had to stay awake, Ankana wouldn't…

The wind changed in that moment, a breeze blowing in from the swamp to carry the night music of croaking frogs and crickets and on its breath a bitter tang of pig fat. "Oh my God…" Daniel reached blindly for his flashlight as cottonwool wrapped itself around his brain, sleep pressing on his eyes like pennies on a dead man's eyelids. He pressed the button and aimed it at the doorway. The blue beam showed him the reflection of Tehuani's stained teeth as the man smiled cruelly. "Sweet dreams, Macu'," he said softly.

Daniel fought it frantically, but the bowl fell from his fingers, and the floor came up to meet him as slumber wrapped itself in his folds and dragged him down into darkness.

***

As he opened his eyes in the dream-place he remembered everything. Confused, but unfortunately all too vivid. Being raped by a snake, a jaguar, a crocodile, the taste of those men's come in his mouth, their fingers touching him everywhere, preparing to fuck him like he was nothing.

"You are nothing. Worse than nothing. Worthless."

No one had touched him after his parents died. He'd missed the comfort of it constantly, like a toothache, but one where you couldn't properly identify the source of the pain. Everything had been hurting him so much in so many places it was difficult to separate one loss from all the other losses. He remembered putting his hand on his foster brother's arm after Ray had been hurt and the boy lashing out at him. "Get your hands off me, you fucking little faggot!" Remembered the councilor at college warning how his need for physical contact could make him vulnerable to exploitation. How he needed to be careful not to have people misinterpret his motives. It had taken him a while to work out what he'd meant but then he'd realized the man was telling him that if he put his hand on the wrong man's arm he was either going to get his nose broken or get it assumed that he was up for more than conversation. How he'd had to train himself not to touch others, made himself remember it. And then Jack had come along and…

A hundred touches, a reassuring hand on his arm, a pat on the back, a quick ruffle of his hair, every one warming something that had been frozen inside him. He didn't know how Jack had known. He'd tried never to show how much it moved and comforted him to be shown physical affection again. Sha're had touched him all the time, seeming to know how much he needed it by the same silent intuition which Jack had where he was concerned. He remembered the loss of her like something ripped out of him, knowing no one was going to put their arms around him again…

Sobbing in Jack's arms, the man pulling him in even closer, even tighter, trying to keep the pain out, the world away from him, encouraging Daniel to bury his face in Jack's neck while he rubbed his back and rocked him in his arms. Never realizing that it was making the remorse so much worse. He'd pushed and pushed, the sarcophagus feeding some devil inside of him that needed proof he was loved, whatever he did, however vile he was, needed Jack to prove he'd still love him. And Jack still had. He hadn't been prepared for that. It had never occurred to him for an instant that Jack would call his bluff and forgive him, care about him unconditionally. He'd thought he was driving the man away. Jack was supposed to fail the test, give up on him, wash his hands of him, say he was glad to see the back of him and he could go the hell through the Stargate and play with Shyla and the sarcophagus, he didn't give a rat's ass. Jack never would do what he was supposed to.

Trapped in the dream-place, hands wrapped around his knees, naked and with no way of defending himself, Daniel looked up at the bad dreamer who was coming for him. They were all waiting for him, the jaguar, the snake, the crocodile, and worse, much worse. The good dreamer couldn't save him this time, and he knew it. He remembered the weight of the gun in his hand, the softness in Jack's eyes. The man saying: "Look at you. I know what this is. You can get through this…" He remembered the guards dragging Jack into the throne room, whacking him around the back of the knees, Jack crying out in agony and exhaustion as he collapsed on the floor. Daniel hadn't cared. He'd thought it was amusing. Jack was always so full of it. It was kind of funny seeing him like that, with his face all dirty, he looked like a chimney sweep…

They were all advancing on him now. The bad dreamer said softly. "You deserve to suffer all the pains of hell."

Daniel remembered Jack crying out and crashing to his knees on the ground. Jack forgiving him, rocking him in his arms. The coverstone falling and crushing his parents to death. Sha're dying on the floor of Amaunet's tent from Teal'c's staff-weapon blast. The blast Teal'c had been forced to fire to save Daniel's life. Yes. He deserved to go to hell. Someplace he could never hurt Jack again, never let him down, never let anyone else down. Hell was exactly where Daniel deserved to be.

The bad dreamer stepped into the circle and seized him by the hair, jerking Daniel cruelly to his feet. Daniel didn't fight him, letting the man shove him contemptuously towards the darkness. "I don't care," he told him quietly. "I really don't care what you do to me."

The bad dreamer smiled unpleasantly. "You will."

***

Jack tightened his grip on Teal'c's waist, Teal'c's right arm looped around his neck. Carter was on the other side of the Jaffa, trying to help him despite the way her left arm was pretty much out of commission. He knew they shouldn't be moving him. He'd taken a staff-weapon blast to the guts that had done more than shake up Junior. The snake was too busy repairing itself to have any energy free to deal with Teal'c's wounds yet, and the Jaffa was really hurting. Being Teal'c he was also denying it.

"Go, O'Neill. You should be with Daniel Jackson."

"Daniel will be fine." He said it tautly. He didn't believe it any more than they did, and he wasn't going to even try to fake it convincingly. "I told him to stay in the teepee and not to fall asleep. As long as he's awake and inside the circle, Tehuani can't get to him."

He felt that look Carter and Teal'c exchanged, didn't need to see it as well.

"Sir, we'll be okay. We've got SG-5 with us."

Jack turned his head to look at SG-5. Two walking wounded carrying their damned near dead leader on a stretcher. They'd had to leave their dead teammate behind. He'd always thought Nirrti was going to be mad as hell when she got away from the other System Lords and she'd certainly proven herself to be running true to form. He was the only one who wasn't nursing some major injury.

"SG-5 can barely stagger, Carter."

He looked at Teal'c's pain-lined face, at Carter, sick-white with the grating of her broken arm, sweat trickling down her face as she helped Teal'c along. He couldn’t leave them to struggle back to the Stargate alone. There was no way in hell Carter could support Teal'c's weight by herself.

"That is very true, O'Neill."

He blinked. He'd got used to Ankana being able to read his mind; it made for ease of conversation, but he didn't like Teal'c doing it. Then he realized Teal'c hadn't. He was referring to what he'd said about SG-5. 

The Jaffa continued imperturbably. "I am not convinced Major Connor and his companions will be able to return to the Stargate without medical assistance. It might be sensible if you were to return to the SGC and alert Dr Fraiser to our predicament. You could then return to Daniel Jackson on…"

"Nothing doing, Teal'c." He had to say it quickly because he was so damned tempted. He was their only able-bodied protection, and he wasn't going to abandon them to run off back to Daniel when they were definitely hurt and Daniel definitely wasn't. Daniel was safe. Daniel had promised him he wouldn't sleep, and Daniel would never break a promise.

You know Tehuani will get to him somehow.

He'd aged six months in the six seconds when Hammond had told him the Tok'ra had sent word that it was Nirrti who might have Teal'c and Carter. They couldn't send anyone to help. Their operative had died getting the message out that a Goa'uld had SG-5 in custody and was torturing them for information. Teal'c and Carter had gone to try and rescue them but they were ten hours overdue. SG-6 had brought back a virus from P3X-076, not fatal, luckily, but very like Asian 'flu. Half the SGC were coughing up blood as their temperatures hovered around 103. There was no one else to send, could O'Neill and Dr Jackson help?

He wasn't sure he'd managed to explain to Hammond why he'd left Daniel behind. He suspected the general had thought he was just cosseting Daniel, trying to keep him away from what had looked like a suicide mission. The way Hammond hadn't argued the point had made O'Neill realize the general thought it was hopeless and was privately relieved Daniel was being kept out of danger. He'd felt like he was being ripped in two. It was only a few hours since Daniel had nearly been gang-raped and left to die in a ditch. The fact he didn't remember it wasn't the point. It had almost happened. Tehuani had been able to make it almost happen. If Jack wasn't there to protect him that son-of-a-bitch was going to drag Daniel down to hell.

And if he didn't manage to save Carter and Teal'c from Nirrti they were going to end up very messily dead. There were two of them and only one of Daniel, and it was Daniel's spirit and mind and soul in peril, not his body. And Ankana would protect him. And Tehuani has him, you know he has him…

That voice in his head could fuck off and leave him alone. Daniel was safe. Teal'c and Carter were hurt. He might be in love, but that didn't make him an idiot. He was still the commanding officer of SG-1 and the ranking officer in this situation. He'd barely got there in time to save his teammates and the surviving members of SG-5 and he certainly wasn't going to abandon them now. Daniel was safe.

Please God let Daniel be safe…

As he thought it, he heard the sound of metal shod feet, of bushes being trampled. "Shit…" he hissed it softly and turned around to see Carter trying to pull up her MP-5 with a broken arm, while Teal'c reached blindly for a staff weapon that wasn't there. Jack did the math with a sinking heart. Numbers of his team unfit for active duty: four wounded, one unconscious. The enemy: what sounded like at least a dozen Jaffa. Number of his team alive, well, and able to defend the others: one. 

As he waved the others towards cover and raised his MP-5, Jack realized that there were bad days, then there were really bad days. Then there was today.

***

Daniel looked up at the metal bracelets around his wrists, the chains glinting coldly in the red-lit darkness; sulfurous fumes burning his throat. Perhaps if he concentrated on the dull shine of their metal he could forget about the pain and horror engulfing him, forget about the claw marks across his back, deeper and more savage than any whip could leave, the burns, the bruises where they'd beaten him to his knees when he tried to escape.

The stench of the thing behind him made the bile rise in his throat but he swallowed it down. Whatever it was that was fucking him wasn't human. Not animal either. Something in-between. He couldn't see it because he was sitting on its lap while it jerked up into him faster and harder, grunting with pleasure. Its body was covered in fur, and he could feel it rubbing against his back, irritating the claw marks, see its huge hairy hands on his thighs as it lifted him higher. It seemed to have a beak rather than a normal jaw; something hard and curved that was scraping down his neck as it thrust into him. Before that there had been something with a boar's head but a human torso. It had left bite marks all over him; most of them still weeping teardrops of blood. He didn't want to think about the ones before that. There were other creatures in the darkness much viler even than those. The bad dreamer had assured him he would make all of their acquaintance in time.

The bad dreamer was watching with rapt enjoyment. Even the screams of the other sufferers could barely distract him, the cruel smile lighting up his face as he watched Daniel trying not to cry out with the horror of this foul-smelling creature raping him. The bad dreamer had told him this was his future; he would endure an eternity of this; a gift to the demons of the underworld, theirs to play with as they liked. Centaur, Minotaur and Cyclops; creatures with wings and horns and scaly tails; giants and monsters; beasts out of his nightmares; things he could never imagine. There was a wheel of fire spinning slowly to his right, someone screaming as it turned; the sound of a whip cracking against flesh. Did this vision of the underworld come from his subconscious or the bad dreamer's? He couldn't tell. Either way he was trapped here, and he couldn't get out. There were no doorways out of here, no exits and no entrances. The bad dreamer had told him that.

The beast grunted harder, and Daniel felt something spurt inside him. He turned his head away in disgust. The bad dreamer had said he couldn't die but he had to believe death would come eventually. The bad dreamer had told him that even when the Cyclops split him in two as it fucked him, he wouldn't die. That he would never die. Or age. Whatever he did or whatever was done to him. He would stay young and beautiful and damned forever, just the way the demons wanted him to be.

The beast pulled out of him roughly, and Daniel fell onto his side on the fur rug on which he had been so contemptuously deposited, the chains jerking cruelly at his wrists, pulling him up short. The rug was filthy, stinking of blood, sweat and semen; his blood and sweat now and other creature's semen. A smell the bad dreamer had told him he had better get used to. He tried not to let his shame and disgust show, tried not to let the hot tears burn his skin either; he'd already shed too many of those. The bad dreamer had reminded him of all the terrible things he'd done; the people who were lost forever because of him; reminded him why he was here and deserved to stay here. For ever and ever. Amen. 

"Daniel!"

He stirred on the rug. The traitor tears were trickling down his face again and he heard the bad dreamer laugh at the sight of them. "You are pathetic, Macu'. Even the beasts of hell are too good for you."

Cry-baby! Cry-baby! 

A boy jeering at him as he tried to muffle his sobs in the pillow, shining a flashlight on his face. He'd been crying for his parents. The ones who died because of him. The arms that weren't there to hold him any longer. The voices he was never going to hear again. They'd gone and taken home with them. He had no home any longer. He would never have a home again.

Abydos…

Sand, and heat, and nights where the temperature dropped like a dead bird falling from the sky. Barren and terrible and beautiful. His mother lifting him up to see the pyramids; Sha're saying 'Look, my Daniel, look there…' as she showed him the tail of a comet the people of Abydos thought was illustrating the death of Ra. Her hero, she had called him that one night, whispering it with a smile. Mocking both of them because he was a hero to her even though she knew, better that anyone, he was just a man…

"Daniel!"

He lifted his head. The bad dreamer was still laughing so he couldn't have heard that voice. There was someone hammering on a door, desperate.

"Daniel, please don't do this. Don't do this. It's like the teepee was for Tehuani. You have to invite me in, understand? I can't get you out of there unless you invite me in."

The good dreamer. Daniel swallowed hard. The good dreamer had come for him. The good dreamer could get him out of here.

"Only if you say my name. Call me! Say my name, Daniel!"

The good dreamer, he knew his name. He was calling him; in his mind he was calling him with everything he had. Safety. Comfort. Home. Those were the names of the good dreamer. Daniel darted a glance and there was the Cyclops coming towards him, horned head brushing against the towering ceiling, single eye gazing at him salaciously, drool dripping from its fanged mouth, the club in its right hand decorated with the brains of one of Odysseus' sailors. Polyphemus come to fuck him until he split open, ripped in two like old silk. The Cyclops' cock was erect and hideous, foul-smelling liquid oozing from its tip in eager anticipation. It was the size of Daniel's shin-bone.

The bad dreamer was smiling. "Yes, take him, take him. Let me hear him scream…"

"Daniel!!" The good dreamer sounded beside himself and Daniel could hear the thump, thump, of someone throwing themselves against rock. "Say my name! Don't let them do this to you. I can save you if you'll let me but you have to say my name. Daniel, please…"

He was staring into a camera and there was a man gazing up at him. The man was asking him to kill him. Begging him to kill him. If he gave the order the man would die. If he didn't the man would still die, but slowly and horribly, eaten to death by… It was Jack. Jack who had said his name back then. The thought of Jack's death which had damned near ripped his heart in two. Jack.

"Daniel! Daniel!"

Daniel stared into the darkness in disbelief. The good dreamer was Jack…? How could the good dreamer be Jack? Jack would never touch him like that, kiss him like that. Jack didn't…love him.

He was in Jack's arms in the storeroom, sobbing brokenly, and Jack was rocking him gently, whispering, "It's okay, it's okay. Everything's going to be okay, Daniel…"

"Of course he doesn't love you!" The bad dreamer was there in an instant, lips pulled back in a snarl of hatred. "How could he love anyone like you? No one could love you!" He slapped Daniel across the face, the sting sharp, an explosion of pain in his cheekbone, momentarily obliterating everything. "No one could love you, you miserable whore!"

"Don't listen to him, Daniel. Call my name! Whatever he's saying to you isn't true. I'm here, and I can save you."

"If you open the door he'll be trapped here. Trapped in the underworld for all eternity."

Daniel put his hands up to his ears, trying to block out the bad dreamer and hear only the good dreamer. Hear only Jack.

"Daniel, whatever he's telling you is a lie. He can't hurt me, and if you let me help you, he can't hurt you either. All you have to do is call my name."

Polyphemus was looming over him, the stench of him like an open grave. Daniel wrenched at the chains in desperation and then opened his mouth to scream for help.

The bad dreamer sprang forward. "He'll see you, here, like this, naked and covered in the come of all these beasts. He'll know you've been fucked like the whore you are."

Daniel wrenched his head away from the Cyclops' lustful touch and looked the bad dreamer in the eye. "I don't care," he said softly. "He'll forgive me, and he won't blame me. He always has forgiven me, and he's never blamed me." He focused on the place in the wall where the other man's voice was coming from and yelled, "Jack! Help me! Jack!"

Light seared his eyes as part of the wall dissolved into a golden glow at once to reveal a single silhouette standing there.

"Get the fuck away from him, you son-of-a-bitch!"

And then the bad dreamer was recoiling, so was the Cyclops. Bullets spraying all around the walls, rage in every one of them, making the beasts of hell scream and cower. Jack was running across the flagstone, ignoring the spits of flame that leapt up from the floor like geysers.

"Daniel?"

"Jack." He couldn't help a smile breaking out as he saw the man's face. It was him, had always been him, Daniel could see that now. This was the good dreamer, but he was also Jack. "Why didn't you tell me it was you?"

Jack shot at the chain joining the cuffs around his wrists and the links snapped, the ache in Daniel's arm finally relieved. Jack crouched down to put his arms around him and lift him up gently. He cradled Daniel's face in his hands. "Oh God, Daniel. I thought I’d lost you. I thought I’d let him take you."

Daniel stared at him in wonder. "How could I not have known it was you? How could it ever have been anyone except you?"

Jack's face spread into smile of pleased surprise. "You're not…disappointed then?"

Daniel put his hand up and tentatively touched Jack's mouth. The man kissed his fingertips, and Daniel swallowed hard, then abruptly leaned up and brushed his lips very gently across Jack's, whispering, "This is how disappointed I am…"

Immediately, Jack's hands were in his hair and he was deepening the kiss, groaning as he cradled Daniel's face in his hands. They pulled apart only with great reluctance, Jack giving his head a shake to clear it. "Probably not the time or the place?"

Daniel looked around at the beasts of hell snarling at them and the flames shooting up from the floor. "Maybe not."

Jack looped his left arm around Daniel's waist, holding up his MP-5 with his right hand and spraying more bullets around at the demons daring to edge closer. Tehuani was shrinking back into the darkness, and Jack aimed the gun at him as they drew level. For a second Daniel saw the hatred flicker across Jack's face and then the man raised his gun and shook his head. "No. Too damned quick and easy. I have one word for you Tehuani and I just know you're going to choke on it: Anhaya."

The man's scream of rage and despair echoed through the pit of hell so loudly the ground began to shake. Jack and Daniel were already running, the rectangle of light growing smaller as the door began to close. As they dived through it to end up in a tangle of limbs on the ground, Daniel looked back. Just before the door slammed shut, he saw the beasts of hell advancing on Tehuani, claws outstretched, teeth bared, the man cowering in fear. Then the door slammed shut and not even the scent of sulfur lingered.

Daniel turned his head to look at Jack. He knew they were in the dream place but it was no longer dark here now. They were in a circle of golden light, bathing them like a libation. He smiled. "Thank you."

Jack rolled over to look at him. "You know that wasn't your dream, right?"

"Right."

"And none of it was real. That was Tehuani's dream, not yours. You can't be hurt by someone else's dream."

"I know." Daniel looked down at the cuffs around his wrists, the broken links of the chain still dangling, and they dissolved into light. The blood, dirt and semen melted off his skin and he was untouched, unblemished, unknown by anyone.

Jack smiled at him. "This is our dream."

Daniel put his arms around Jack's neck and kissed him again, drinking in the scent of him as he felt those warm dry lips against his. Their tongues curled together and Daniel sighed with contentment, opening his mouth to invite Jack in deeper. The man kissed him more passionately then slowly pulled away, Daniel leaning forward to try and prevent the break of contact. He opened the eyes he had automatically closed as the kiss pulled him into its warmth. "What?"

"Let's not do this here."

Daniel looked around the dream-place, the sleeping bag, the soft earth floor. "What's wrong with it?"

Jack stroked a finger across his mouth gently. "Let's do this in the real world."

"Wake up?" Daniel sucked on the finger as it brushed across his lips. "What if I don’t remember? I never did before." All the pain and guilt had gone now. There was no shame here. There was just Jack, and Jack loved him. That was so wonderful nothing else could hurt him, no memories of the past and no fear of the future…

"I hope you don't."

"What?" Daniel stared him aghast. There was a future he feared, after all. A future where he didn't remember how much he loved and needed this man.

Jack's brown eyes were softer than he'd ever seen them. He stroked a finger down Daniel's mouth again. "You don't need to remember all the horrible things Tehuani did to you, Daniel. You just need to know you love me."

Daniel swallowed. "What if I don't?"

Jack leant across, cupped a hand behind Daniel's head and then kissed him on the mouth again, exhaling as he finished so Daniel could feel his breath against his lips, a sigh of sheer contentment. He rested his forehead against Daniel's and very gently rubbed his nose against Daniel's. "I'll remind you."

"But what if I don't remember?"

"You realized it once. You'll realize it again." Jack kissed him lightly on the forehead before getting to his feet and holding out a hand. "We really can't keep meeting like this, you know…"

And Daniel knew it was true, but the dream-place was so perfect. He looked around at it and sighed. "We were so happy here."

"Time to move on, Daniel. Remember? We can't go backwards, only forwards."

Daniel took the man's hand. "Forwards it is then." He took a deep breath and then stepped out of the circle into the darkness.

***

Daniel woke with a start. Gray light was filtering through the open flap of the teepee and the first few birds were singing a cautious welcome to the dawn. Someone was groaning. He reached for his flashlight. The last thing he remembered was Tehuani tricking him into drinking something…

"Jack?" He shone the flashlight on the other sleeping bag and Jack squirmed away from the light, putting a hand over his eyes.

Daniel got to his knees. "Jack?" He ran the beam of the flashlight and hissed at what he saw: burnt uniform, blood, a jagged cut on his head. "Damnit, Jack." Daniel dived over to where the man was lying and leant over him. There was a hole in the man's jacket by his left shoulder and a lot of blood. He peeled back the sodden cloth and then winced at the clear evidence of a staff weapon blast he found there; a second-degree burn and a hole in the man's shoulder. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Will you quit it with that yelling?" Jack groaned.

"Where are Sam and Teal'c?"

"Back in…infirmary." Jack reluctantly took his hand away from his eyes. "Damnit, Daniel was having…really good dream."

"You’re lying in your own blood." Daniel resisted the urge to shake him but he did grab him by the shoulders and haul him up, speaking very clearly, like you would to a senior citizen with a hearing aid. "Why. Aren't. You. In. The. Infirmary?"

Jack tried to pull away from him. "Had to come back for you. Lemmegobacktosleep…"

"Oh no you don't." Daniel tightened his grip. "You're coming home, right now. What the hell was Janet thinking of letting you out like this anyway?"

"Ow…" Jack put a hand to his head. "Stop yelling. Hurts my head."

"We're leaving," Daniel told him sternly. "Now. Up, come on – up." He hauled a reluctant and protesting Jack to his feet where the man swayed dazedly.

"Don't wanna…" Jack muttered rebelliously. "Like it here."

"Tough." Daniel looped Jack's left arm around his neck and put his other arm around the man's waist. 

Jack nuzzled in at his neck. "Wanna stay an' snuggle."

"Oh Jeez." Daniel looked across at his boots then decided he could manage without them. 

Jack was murmuring fond nonsense into his neck. "…looked so beautiful in the light, Danny…so beautiful…you should never wear clothes, you know that…never…"

Daniel decided he could manage without his jacket as well. He sighed wearily. "Janet gave you morphine again, didn't she? It always make you all…goopy." He wriggled awkwardly as Jack began to kiss a wet trail up his neck. "I'm Daniel, Jack, remember? Daniel? That's the teammate you don't kiss. Actually, as far as I know, you don't kiss Teal'c or Sam either but… Damnit, Jack…!" Daniel pulled his head away from the tongue Jack was making determined efforts to insert into his ear. He hauled the man up a little higher as Jack slumped against him fondly. "Cut that out, will you?"

"Do kiss you. Kissed you sixty-seven times!"

Daniel exhaled wearily. "Sure you have."

"Forty-five with tongue."

"Okey-dokey."

"You liked it."

"Of course I did." Daniel looked around the teepee and decided they could both come back for their packs at another time.

"I made you come…" Jack said it very softly, like it was something precious. "You look so beautiful when you come, Daniel."

Daniel opened his mouth to refute it and then stopped. There was such tenderness in Jack's voice, and his expression was soft and wistful, like he was talking about one of his most precious memories. Daniel tightened his grip then said gently, "Let's get you home, Jack. Get Janet to take a look at that cut on your head."

"Do you remember?" Jack clutched at him anxiously. "You haven't forgotten you love me, have you, Daniel?"

Daniel looked at him for a moment, biting his lip. Jack's brown eyes were full of anxiety and there was blood trickling down his forehead. Daniel forced a smile and said softly, "No. Of course I haven't. You're my best friend, Jack. I'd never forget something as important as that."

He realized he'd said the right thing as the relief washed over Jack's dazed face. The man slumped against him gratefully. "Thank God for that. Couldn't bear it if you'd forgotten. Took so long for you to realize. Thought you were never going to…Never. Thought you'd never call my name. Thought I'd lost you…"

Daniel realized Jack was barely conscious. He didn't know what had driven Jack to stagger back through the 'gate when he was half-dead, but he did think the man was lucky to still be alive. Jack was still murmuring a lot of things that made no sense about truckers and Minotaurs and one-eyed giants with big clubs. Daniel made soothing noises. "I'm safe, Jack. Perfectly safe. No Cyclops here. Do you want to work with me a little? See if you can manage a few steps? That's the way…" 

As he helped Jack out into the light, the older man leaning against him drunkenly and whispering a lot of things Daniel was trying very hard not to listen to and hoping Jack wouldn't remember because boy was he going to be embarrassed if he did, Daniel realized things were…different here. Or rather they were the same as they'd been when they first arrived. Birds singing. Sun shining. Birch trees waving gently in the morning breeze. Even the air smelt sweeter.

Daniel frowned in confusion. Surely there had been…? Something about a mangrove swamp…? No. Must have been a bad dream or that flu bug he'd thought he was coming down with. Perhaps the whole damned week had been a bad dream. That would explain his constant feeling of exhaustion. The way he kept waking up feeling more tired than when he'd fallen asleep the night before. He looked around for the totem pole. Was the anaconda hissing at him today or not?

Daniel turned to the totem and then blinked in disbelief. There was the anaconda and the jaguar, both of them looking beautiful and unknowable, but decidedly not hostile. But there too was the wolf and on top of the totem was the black eagle. And yet he was absolutely certain he had never…

"You achieved Anhaya!"

Daniel wheeled around, tightening his grip on the man he held. "Shush, Jack."

"But need to tell you about everything we did…case you don't remember…you liked it best when I touched you…"

"Jack. Not right now." He hissed it at him urgently, and it seemed to permeate.

Jack nodded dazedly and put a bloodstained finger up somewhere near his lips. "Hush-hush. Don't ask. Don't tell."

"That's the way." Daniel squeezed the hand of the arm looped around his neck encouragingly. "Let's just keep it between ourselves, okay?" He managed a smile for Ankana despite the way Jack seemed to weigh a ton and he was desperate to get him back to the infirmary. "Chief Ankana."

"My child, I thought you would be lost to us." Ankana gently put his gnarled hands to Daniel's face, looking at him as though he was a favorite son. "You realized the truth in time. You overcame your shame."

Daniel moistened his lips. There was a long way they could do this or a short way. Given how much blood Jack seemed to have lost, he decided the short way was definitely the only way today. He forced a smile. "Absolutely."

Ankana turned to Jack. "He recognized you?"

Jack nodded proudly. "Said my name. Called me. Said I wouldn't judge him. Got him out. Left Tehuani in there. He ain't never coming home."

Ankana darted Daniel an assessing look, frowning a little. "And he…remembers?"

"Yep." Jack nodded again. "Says he does." He tried to turn his head to look at Daniel, lurching in the process and nearly pulling the younger man over. "Still love me, don't you, Danny?"

Daniel hauled him back up, grunting with exertion. "Yes, Jack. Still love you. Going off you kind of rapidly though so can we get a move on?" He gave Ankana an apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry, Chief Ankana, I really need to get Jack home. I don't know what our…healer was thinking of letting him travel through the Stargate in this state anyway."

Ankana stared at him in disbelief. "You don't remember. But then how…?"

Jack was still talking, sounding as happy as an Irish drunk on St Patrick's Day. "…always did love me, you see, Daniel…didn't realize how much until the Aynshuns…no…ayn-shunts…whatever…old people…got their stuff in my head…going nuts… Daniel really scared… Thought I was never coming home… Thought then…gotta keep safe for Danny's sake…been through so much shit…really doesn't need to lose me too…"

"Of course." Ankana's face cleared. "What better place to hide a secret than behind an existing truth? He already knew he loved you."

"Yep." Jack nodded emphatically. "Always knew he did. Sweet, eh?"

"Okay. Time for you to go bye-byes now, Jack." Daniel hauled him up and nodded formally to Ankana. "We thank you for your hospitality and hope you will allow us to return once Jack is fully recovered."

Jack gave Ankana a big silly grin. "Loves me, see?"

Daniel rolled his eyes, gave Ankana an apologetic grimace and then began to haul Jack determinedly in the direction of the Stargate. Jack nuzzled in against Daniel's neck, sighing with contentment. "Was afraid you wouldn't remember. Couldn't bear it if you didn't remember. Loved you so much for so long… Love you so much, Daniel."

Daniel swallowed hard, tears unexpectedly coming in to his eyes. He darted the man a quick sideways glance, trying to tell himself Jack was kidding, but Jack was dazed with pain, morphine and happiness. The man reached out and touched his nose carefully with his forefinger. "Love you so much."

He swallowed again, having to screw up his face to stop the tears escaping. Jack was so unexpectedly vulnerable, fragile and precious to him in that moment he didn't know if he wanted to hug him so hard he squeezed the last bit of life out of him or to punch him on the arm and tell him to shut the hell up. Daniel bit his lip. "Love you too, Jack," he said very gently. He stumbled on the soft ground as he headed gratefully for the DHD. "Love you too."

***

Lying on the double bed in the cabin by the lake, Jack listened to the sound of owls calling across the still water and sighed. Even ten days after his and Daniel's arrival through the Stargate people were still talking about the language the usually mild-mannered Doctor Jackson had used to Janet Fraiser as he told her what he thought of her patient after-care.

When General Hammond had attempted to defend the beleaguered doctor by explaining how very adamant Jack had been about returning to the planet, Daniel had ripped him to pieces with a few well-chosen words dealing with chain of command, and since when had a patient been able to make recommendations about his own treatment, and no he'd never been in any damned danger, and hadn't any of them noticed the state Jack was in before letting him head out through the gate?

People had been skipping out of Daniel's way for days after that little outburst. Jack had to admit he did feel sorry for Janet Fraiser. After all, it had only been a few hours previously he'd told her in no uncertain terms what he was going to do to her if she even thought about trying to keep him from going back to rescue Daniel from Tehuani. As she had mentioned to Carter apparently more than once, her ears were still burning from that dual assault a week later. Everyone else had just been stunned by the unexpectedly wide vocabulary Daniel had displayed. Like Jack had kept telling people, the boy was a linguist for crying out loud, so what did they expect?

And yes, it had been a terrible disappointment when he'd realized that Daniel didn't remember anything, but a disappointment tempered by relief. If there was a choice between Daniel forgetting all those nights when he and Jack had kissed and caressed one another and Daniel remembering the terrible things which had happened to him in Tehuani's bad dreams then it was no contest: Jack was going to vote for oblivion every time. When it had mattered, Daniel had realized who the good dreamer was. When he'd needed to trust Jack absolutely and know that he loved him, Daniel had done both. If he'd done it once, he might do it again, and if he didn't, at least Jack had his memories…

There was no dream-place any more. He'd realized that. Those brief magical weeks when he and Daniel could meet in their dreams had ended with the Anhaya. They had left the dream-place, and they couldn't go back. They had to live in the physical world now. And if that meant Jack had to live with only having memories of what it was like to have Daniel naked and in his arms well then he did. He was still grateful to be alive himself and to have Daniel back safely rather than a prisoner of Tehuani's warped mind in a hell of his own making.

And being convalescent had its advantages. It had taken him months of pleading to get Daniel to agree to go fishing with him last time. He'd known it was touch and go; Daniel hadn't exactly been enthusiastic at the thought of a week by the lakeside watching the fish jump, but he had got him to agree. He still hadn't trusted him not to bail though which was why he'd wanted them to travel out together, but no, Daniel had been adamant he would meet him at the cabin, he had work to finish up at the SGC, he'd make his own way there.

If Jack was honest he'd been planning a seduction. He'd brought some good food, put a Bach cello concerto on the portable CD player and had some really fine single malt waiting there in readiness for when Daniel walked through the door. Except Daniel hadn't walked through the door and the signal on his mobile had been blocked by the damned mountains, and after hours and hours and hours of waiting he'd had to drive into town to put in a call to find out what the hell was going on. What was going on had turned out to be Daniel collapsing in agony in his office with a perforated appendix and having to be rushed into the infirmary for emergency surgery…

Then it had taken him even more hours and hours of driving, queuing in airports, waiting in airports while everyone helpfully told him there weren't any cancellations and would he like to wait for the next flight, before he could get back to the SGC. Whereupon Janet had told him Daniel needed his rest and could he make sure he didn't stay longer than two minutes. And oh yes, he must tell Daniel to stop worrying about that silly vacation because Daniel had been so anxious about not being able to go fishing with Jack, so he could he just reassure him that he didn't mind at all?

He hadn't been able to decide which one of them he wanted to kill the most: Janet or Daniel. He'd hoped for a wonderful vacation in beautiful scenery with a companion who he might, if he played his cards right, be able to turn from a friend into a lover. He'd ended up getting beamed up onto Thor's ship to face certain death while trying to save the world. Again. As vacations went that one had definitely sucked.

So, he couldn’t have been happier when Daniel had suggested that he came and recuperated here. Daniel had been acting like Janet wasn't safe to look after a sick gerbil ever since she'd let Jack go through the gate. He'd spent Jack's infirmary time hovering over him, inspecting her doctoring like Jack was a listed building and he suspected her of having a lump hammer concealed about her person. When she'd pronounced Jack fit again he'd over-ruled her in an instant, telling General Hammond in a way that reminded Jack of a she-wolf who had just come across someone trying to steal its cubs, that of course Jack wasn't fit for active service yet and had anyone even taken into account the fact the man was still owed ten days vacation time? "What Jack needs is a holiday," Daniel had told them both firmly. Jack hadn't argued. Even better, neither had Janet Fraiser and General Hammond.

Which was why they were here and it was even better than it could have been last time because he hadn't had to coax, cajole, and bully Daniel into coming here this time. Daniel had suggested it. Daniel had booked it. Daniel had paid for it. Daniel had arranged the flight, hired the car, and driven them both up to the cabin. Then Daniel had insisted Jack took the bed while he went out on the lake, presumably to check that it was safe for Jack to venture out there. 

Jack wasn't sure how he felt about Daniel being this protective of him. Everyone else was assuming it was just fall-out from when the rest of SG-1 had been missing, presumed quite possibly dead, and Daniel had been going out of his mind worrying about them. Immediately followed by Jack and Teal'c being trapped on a submarine over-run with people-and-everything-else-eating bugs who were going to make a meal out of two of Daniel's dearest friends if Daniel didn't grant them a quick death first by giving the order to launch those torpedoes. Everyone had been positively expecting Daniel to get a little over-protective after that. But Jack thought otherwise. He had a horrible suspicion he might have given himself away after he'd got Daniel back from Tehuani. The painkillers had been making everything awfully blurry, and the blood-loss had left him a little brain-addled as well. And he had assumed he and Daniel would both remember being madly in love with each other so he might well have been a little indiscreet. 

It would be just like Daniel to react to an unwanted declaration of affection from his best friend by being extra nice to him just out of guilt. There would be a terrible irony in him having set out to give Daniel all that affirmation and love and trust and support and just ending up adding to his guilt-burden. 

Jack sighed and turned over carefully on the bed. His body seemed to have made a good recovery as that action hardly hurt at all. And it was a nice bed. Patchwork quilt, firm springs, good mattress. Plenty of room for two. Unfortunately, Daniel seemed to be planning to sleep on the couch so that didn't really factor. There was a full moon out there just starting to come out, owls hooting, fish jumping, lots of pretty twinkly stars. Very romantic. And here he was on vacation with the man of his dreams. Dreams. He sighed again and reached across to put on the radio.

Music blared at him, much too loud and he winced as he recognized the song. Great, Roy Orbison at full volume just when he really didn't want him. He certainly didn't want any candy-colored clowns sprinkling stardust anywhere near him, thank you very much.

I close my eyes then I drift away  
Into the magic night, I softly say  
A silent prayer, like dreamers do  
Then I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you…

He grabbed for the off-switch so violently he knocked the radio on the floor. Once upon a time not so long ago, Daniel had been his in the dreams they shared, and they had been together. Daniel had said his name and looked him in the eye and known it was Jack he loved. Some people went a whole lifetime and never got that moment; Jack knew he should be grateful he wasn't one of them but at times it was hard to remember how lucky he was. This was definitely one of those times. 

In dreams I walk with you, in dreams I talk to you  
In dreams you're mine all the time  
We're together in dreams…

Damn Roy Orbison! He couldn't remember if the guy was alive or dead, but if he was alive Jack was going to get a contract taken out on the son-of-a-bitch the second he got back to Cheyenne Mountain. The man was still singing from his new vantage point on the floor and Jack scrabbled at the plastic casing trying to hit the off-switch, his shoulder aching a protest as he tried to get a fingertip on the radio without falling off the bed.

But just before the dawn I awake and find you gone…

Where was that sidearm when he needed it? That radio was so dead.

It only happens in my dreams.  
Only in dreams. In beautiful dreams…

His scrabbling fingers finally hit the off-switch, but he could still hear the words of the song echoing in the air.

Except it didn't happen in his dreams. Now he didn't even have the beautiful dreams any more.

Jack closed his eyes, wincing, then gave himself a mental shake. No, he had something better. He had Daniel back from the underworld, alive and well and mentally unscathed. That was better than any dream.

"Jack?"

He looked up to find Daniel standing in the doorway, the moonlight silvering the edges of his short hair. It was dark in the cabin, the night had come in without him noticing it, but he could still see how pale Daniel's skin was. He looked as though he'd had some kind of shock. Jack frowned in concern. "Daniel?"

"Why did you switch it off?"

Jack scratched his jaw awkwardly. "It was giving me a headache."

"I could hear it on the lake."

"Yeah, like I said it was loud."

Daniel took a step into the room and Jack saw his face properly for the first time. Definitely some kind of shock. Not just pale, Daniel had the oddest expression on his face. " 'I fall asleep to dream my dreams of you.' "

Jack swallowed hard because Daniel had never looked this beautiful. Please God don't say he was going to keep looking this beautiful when Jack could never touch him or kiss him again, never feel his breath against his face, never feel him in his arms trembling as the orgasm built inside him.

"It was you."

Jack suddenly realized why Daniel wrapped his arms around himself like that. It was because the world was such a damned cold place sometimes. "What?" His throat was so dry it came out as a feeble croak.

"In my dreams." Daniel came over to the bed and switched on the lamp. He looked so stunned Jack wondered if he was going to faint. Daniel gestured vaguely at the open doorway while still keeping his gaze fixed on Jack as though he'd never seen him before. "It was you in my dreams. All those dreams I couldn't remember. That's what I did; I fell asleep to dream my dreams of you, just like it said in the song. I remembered. And you knew. You were there. It was the same dream. We had the same dream."

Jack swallowed hard. "Yes." He'd faced Goa'uld and Ree'tu and serpent guards and trained torturers, but he'd never been this scared in his life. "Yes, we did."

"You knew?" Daniel looked at him in disbelief. "You knew, and you didn't tell me?"

"Tell you what?" Jack said it gently. They were teetering right on the edge of an abyss here. He could lose or gain everything in this moment and he had no idea how to play it, he only knew he didn't want Daniel getting hurt. 

"That we…I…I loved you. I…love you."

"Yes." Jack wasn't going to deny it when it was the cornerstone of his world.

Daniel stared at him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I needed you to tell me." Jack said it very gently. "And you just did."

Daniel held up a finger like he would have taken it back but then shook his head. "I remember us doing…all kinds of…amazing things."

Jack nodded. "Yep. I'd say that was a pretty good description."

Daniel sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at him as though he had no breath left in his body. "We were…"

"Terrific together?" Jack prompted.

Daniel nodded dazedly. "I mean – unbelievably – "

"Yeah. We were."

Daniel looked at him sideways. "Didn't you want to…you know…do it for real?"

Jack sighed in exasperation. "What do you think?"

"Well, why didn't you…remind me? You said you'd remind me!"

"How?"

Daniel looked around the cabin for inspiration. "I don't know – do – something. Do – this maybe – " He leant forward, hesitated, then scrunched his eyes closed like someone expecting a blow and pressed his lips against Jack's.

Jack felt that fist in his guts unclench, the iron in his marrow melt into honey trickling through every limb as those warm moist lips so gently bruised his. This was heaven, right here. He could smell the chill of the lake-water on Daniel's skin; he'd almost swear he could taste the moonlight on his skin. He kissed Daniel back, putting up his hands to run them through that soft short hair, marveling at the wonder of finally being able to touch it. And it was exactly as he remembered it, the strands brushing across his fingers like a caress while Daniel sighed into his open mouth, their tongues curling together, tentatively at first, like strangers meeting for the first time, then wrapping themselves around each other like old friends.

When they separated, Daniel was looking at him anxiously. God he looks like he's expecting me to slap him. Jack winced. He reached out and took Daniel's hands in his, making Daniel's look of confusion grow, then he lifted them and pressed them to his face, turning his head to kiss the fingertips of each hand in turn, then he slowly drew Daniel's right hand down his chest so Daniel's unresisting fingertips traced lines across his shirt. "It's okay to touch, Daniel," he said very gently. "It's okay to touch me anywhere you like." Seeing Daniel look dangerously close to tears of relief, Jack smiled. "In fact, Danny boy, it's positively encouraged…"

Daniel's arms went around his neck so fast it was like being grabbed by an octopus, a warm wriggling, very-close-to-tears-of relief-octopus who Jack was only too happy to clasp in his own arms in return. He pressed his mouth to Daniel's and kissed him tenderly as they both sighed with the relief of getting here at last. Jack cupped Daniel's face in his hand as they kissed deeper, slow and passionate, the hunger starting to build now as they remembered how wonderful the other man tasted. His left hand was already undoing Daniel's buttons, trembling a little, but slipping each one through the button hole to reveal another few inches of smooth bare skin.

As they broke apart to breathe, Jack snatched some oxygen. "Of course, you were always naked in the dream…"

"So were you." Daniel reminded him.

"That – could be arranged."

Daniel rolled over and tugged at the last few buttons of his shirt. "I suggest you get…arranging, Colonel."

Jack looked down at the number of buttons on his own shirt. "Oh to hell with that." He pulled it off over his head, stifling a yelp of pain as his shoulder wound made an indignant protest. The way Daniel was unbuckling his belt with frenzied haste spurred Jack on, and he yanked at his bootlaces. He hadn't been this eager to get out of his clothes since his honeymoon. He kicked off his own boots then reached across to help Daniel with his, doing the left one while Daniel tugged irritably at the knot in the right one. As he slipped the left boot off and tossed it onto the floor, he saw Daniel trying to bite through the lace of the right one and grinned. It was nice to know he wasn't the only one whose pants abruptly felt three sizes too small.

"Need a hand?"

"A knife would be better."

"Allow me." He produced his knife with a flourish and Daniel sat back, holding out his foot. Jack sliced through the knotted lace with one flick of the wrist, and Daniel kicked the boot into the far corner of the room. They exchanged a glance of mutual satisfaction. As he wrenched at the zipper of his pants, Jack moistened his lips, tasting Daniel's kiss on it, as sweet as he remembered it. "So, the dreams…? What do you…?"

"Well it wasn't sixty-seven times you kissed me. It was at least eighty-five."

"Hey, I never said I was good at math. I just knew it was a lot, but not enough. Nothing like enough." Jack darted him a sideways look, afraid to ask just how much Daniel remembered.

Daniel met his gaze, seeming to read his mind without any effort. "I know there were bad things, Jack, but I don't remember them. They weren't part of my dream. Only the bits where you told me not to remember them are in my dream. Otherwise I wouldn't know even as little as I do."

And that was the last of his fear gone. Jack exhaled. "Good. Because the bits with me in them were definitely the highlights."

Daniel smiled, such a sweet smile it seemed to knock all the breath out of Jack's body. "Well, much as I hate to pander to your ego, that's pretty much how I remember it too."

Jack couldn't have stopped that grin breaking out if someone had put a gun to his head. He beckoned to Daniel. "C'mere you."

Daniel was in his arms before the words were out of his mouth. They crashed back down onto their sides onto the bed, Daniel gazing into his eyes while he gazed into Daniel's. Daniel said softly. "I never forgot I loved you, Jack. Not ever. I just forgot I was in love with you."

Jack craned his neck and kissed him, slow and sweet and tender. "It doesn't matter, Daniel. I was always in love with you enough for both of us." He rolled on top of Daniel very carefully, keeping their tongues entwined as he did so, and then kissed him deeper, gentle thrusts of his tongue into the warm wet cavern of his mouth.

Daniel groaned with pleasure, pushing his groin up to rub against Jack's. As their cocks clashed deliciously against each other, Daniel snatched some air, panting breathlessly, "I remember this dream. This was a damned good one."

"Trust me, Daniel, reality is going to be so much better."

Jack reached down for his own pants, wriggling out of them as Daniel did the same. They kicked the clinging cloth off, Jack obligingly treading on the tricky right leg of Daniel's trousers which seemed particularly unwilling to let go. Jack didn't blame that cloth for wanting to keep in contact with the smooth skin of those wonderfully long slender legs, but it was out of luck tonight. He pinned it to the floor with his foot while Daniel pulled his leg free. Jack kicked the pants to the far corner of the room, throwing his briefs after them before raising an eyebrow and grinning. "Naked at last."

Daniel wriggled out his boxers, tossing them as far away as he could. He leant across and pressed his lips to Jack's. There was much less of a flinch this time, much less of a sense of Daniel having to screw up his courage while expecting a rebuff and Jack stroked his hair gently, encouraging him to deepen the kiss, to give rein to his hunger. That's it, Dannyboy, time you learned how good touching can be and you can touch me anywhere you like. Anywhere at all… Daniel was tentatively beginning to explore him now, kissing a trail from Jack's mouth, all the way down his throat to his chest, growing in confidence as he did so. Through a mouthful of chest hair, Daniel murmured, "Let's never get dressed again."

"Sounds good to me."

Daniel had reached his left nipple now and Jack gasped as Daniel kissed, sucked, and then worried it gently with his teeth, like a terrier puppy with a toy. His cock was abruptly not just sitting up and taking notice; it was out on parade and saluting. "You remembering this?" he managed breathlessly. "Or are you making it up as you go along?"

Daniel moved over to his right nipple and breathed on it deliberately before glancing up at him from under his eyelashes. "Thought I'd…improvise. Couldn't see what I was doing in the dreams, remember?"

Jack groaned in a mixture of arousal and regret. "I remember. Pity that – the view was terrific from where I was sitting."

Daniel paused in the middle of sucking his right nipple and looked up at him, blinking as he did so. "Did you just pay me a compliment?"

Jack scratched his jaw. "I can do that, can't I? I mean we're…sort of dating now, aren't we?"

"Okay. Just – you know, not in mission briefings."

"You're no fun."

Daniel looked at him with definite challenge in his blue eyes. "Is that a fact? Well, let's just see about that." He began to kiss a trail down Jack's abdomen before deliberately inserting his tongue into Jack's navel to make the man squirm with pleasure. Then he nipped a trail down the line of hair leading to his groin. Hot breath warmed the base of Jack's cock. 

Jack swallowed hard. "Are you gonna…?"

Daniel flicked a glance up at him without moving his mouth from its place by Jack's balls. He reminded Jack of a child who was asking permission to be naughty; there was that same mixture of defiance intermingled with pleading. "Yes I am." He said it determinedly but darted Jack a quick look as he did so, trying to assess if this really was allowed.

Oh it's allowed, Daniel, it is so definitely allowed…

"Do you have a problem with that, Colonel O'Neill?" 

He really was asking for permission. Jack bit down his first response, which was that if Daniel did that he'd have to put him over his knee and spank him later. Daniel might interpret that as rejection rather than foreplay and this was such a leap in the dark for him… Not the dark this time. This time he can see who it is he's in love with. This time he definitely knows my name.

Daniel said with more confidence, "So if you were thinking of begging for mercy now would be the time."

Jack scrunched up his face. "I'm an officer in the Air Force, remember? I'll just take what's coming to me without complaining."

Daniel let the tip of his tongue delve between Jack's balls, tasting and licking them, the flavor clearly intriguing him so much he forgot he was doing something 'bad'. "That would be a first."

"I resent – oh boy!" Jack's hips jolted off the bed as Daniel's mouth closed over his balls and started sucking. He felt Daniel's hands press down firmly on his hips, holding him still while electricity began to shoot along his spine in response to Daniel's mouth against his groin.

Daniel sucked his testicles to wet heat in their sacs, making Jack groan with desire, then kissed them gently, pushing his nose into inhale the scent of them before swiping his tongue along the base of Jack's cock.

"Oh God, Danny…" Jack gasped.

Daniel smiled suddenly and Jack recognized that look. It was Daniel's 'Wow I can actually do this' expression. He loved that look, and it was a particularly nice surprise to find that this was one of the things Daniel could do. Daniel breathed on the head of Jack's straining cock. As he opened his mouth to engulf it, he murmured, "Don't call me 'Danny'."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Jack countered. He had a lot more he wanted to say, but abruptly there was an electric current jolting straight through his groin to every pleasure circuit in his body, and his hips were lunging up off the bed. Daniel was sucking him, gently, then hard and deep, then gentle again, experimenting, licking, nibbling, letting his teeth grate against the head of his cock, and then sucking again. 

As Jack gasped and reached for the back of Daniel's head, making himself just trail his fingers gently through that soft hair, he didn't have the heart to tell Daniel that he really didn't need to be that skillful or experimental, he just needed to be Daniel, and that was mind-blowing enough. The knowledge it was Daniel's mouth sucking him, Daniel who loved him enough to do this for him, desired him enough to find the taste of his cock so clearly irresistible, that was the biggest turn-on in the galaxy. Pleasure began to build in waves, rippling through him, searing every nerve ending. He felt as though his body was being scraped across a shale beach by a pounding wave of almost unbearable ecstasy.

"Sorry, Daniel," Jack gasped. "Can't – sorry – can't – have to – gonna – " The orgasm was like being thrown up into the air by some explosive force; like the time they'd been hurtled out into space in a death glider after Apophis' ship had blown up. When he hit the ground again, he was lying on his back on the bed, and Daniel was kissing him gently. As he gasped for air, Daniel's tongue slipped into his mouth like a small animal returning to its proper home, and he tasted his own semen in Daniel's mouth; sweet, salty proof of how much Daniel loved him.

Jack pressed a hand to the back of Daniel's head, pulling him in for a deeper kiss and then rolled him over onto his back so he could straddle him and kiss him over and over and over again.

When they reluctantly pulled apart for air, there was a dreamy look in Daniel's eyes. He reached up to nuzzle his nose against Jack's. "Love you, Jack O'Neill."

Jack bit his lip, gazing down at that perfect face, the mussed short hair, the look in those blue eyes that was all for him. He stroked his thumb across Daniel's mouth, marveling at how beautiful it was then bent down and kissed his eyelids, remembering how he'd done it in the dream, the sorrow he'd felt each time he realized Daniel still wouldn't let himself see him. He said softly, "I'm a little bit more than lukewarm about you, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel reached up and brushed Jack's hair away from the cut on his forehead. "I'm sorry it took me so long to wake up, Jack. Sorry you had to wait so long."

Jack bent down and kissed him on the mouth very gently. "That's okay, Daniel," he breathed. "Some things are worth waiting a whole lifetime for…"

***

"I'm sure I've missed a bit." Jack licked his lips carefully and looked over his handiwork so far.

Lying on his back on the bed, Daniel followed Jack's gaze to his naked body. "Don't think so."

"No, I can tell. There is definitely a bit of you I haven't kissed yet. Can't have that. Yes, there it is." Jack bent his head and lifted Daniel's left arm, kissing him very carefully behind the point of his elbow. "There you go."

Daniel couldn't stop his smile breaking out. His whole body was warm and tingling from being kissed by Jack; he could still feel the imprint of the man's lips against his skin, and it was the most wonderful feeling. He gazed up at him and wondered how the hell he could have been so blind for so long. Look at those brown eyes, so full of tenderness and compassion. Look at that incredible hair. Didn't matter how many times he ran his fingers through it, he just had to do it again. Look at that face. Jack had to be the best-looking guy on the planet, no, make that any planet. How could anyone not be in love with Jack? The man was perfect. It was a flawed, crabby, unreasonable, hideously-cheerful-in-the-mornings sort-of perfection, admittedly, but perfection nevertheless.

He reached up and stroked a finger down Jack's nose. Jack captured his hand and kissed it, licking the middle of his palm. Daniel sighed in contentment. "How many dreams have we done so far?"

Jack seemed to consider the question for a moment. He was kneeling over Daniel where Daniel lay on his back on the patchwork quilt. Daniel could see that Jack's cock was in that semi-aroused position which really made him want to suck on it, but they'd done that dream already, quite thoroughly. Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I think we covered the kissing and touching ones pretty well."

"And the ecstatic writhing and squirming one." Daniel smiled at the memory.

"Oh yeah. We did that one very well I thought."

"And the sucking ones."

"Yep." Jack nodded.

Daniel frowned. "I haven't given you a hand-job though."

"We can do that on the lake tomorrow if you like."

"Won't it scare the fish?"

Jack shrugged. "Who cares?"

Daniel looked up at him. "I tell you what we haven't done."

Jack bent and began to kiss him again, licking Daniel's appendix scar lovingly, his tongue very warm and wet against the shiny skin. "What?"

"The dream we didn't finish. The one you said we needed to be awake to do properly." Daniel wriggled invitingly. "I'm awake."

Jack jerked his head up. "So am I."

Daniel looked at the man's groin. "Very awake from where I'm lying."

Jack moistened his lips and there was a hint of anxiety in those brown eyes. "Are you sure? We don't have to. We don't ever have to if you don't want to…"

For the first time Daniel realized that the bad dreams he didn't remember were still lodged in Jack's memory. He'd been grateful for that before. It meant they weren't really lost, just being stored somewhere he couldn't access them at the moment. If the bad dreams started to filter back in, he could check with Jack and see if they were Tehuani's handiwork. But now he realized Jack had a whole collection of somebody else's nightmares in his head. 

Daniel grimaced. "Jack, I don't remember the bad dreams. If I was…hurt in them, I don't remember it. All I remember is you. Being in love with you and it being the most wonderful experience of my life." He stroked the coverlet and looked up at Jack. "A bit like now really." Then he reached up and ran his fingers through the soft hair on Jack's chest, reminding himself that it was all right to touch, taste, kiss, even bite a little, that Jack really didn't mind, in fact Jack was all for the idea. "Let's try and get you to forget the bad dreams too."

Jack considered the suggestion for a moment and then shrugged. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Daniel spread himself out on the coverlet as invitingly as he could manage it and gave Jack his best under-the-eyelashes glance. "So, is like this okay, or do you want to tie me to the bed?" When Jack flinched violently, Daniel winced, "Sorry – sorry. I don't know what I'm supposed to avoid here. Do you want me to turn over – ?"

"No!"

Daniel winced again as he saw Jack put a shaking hand up to his head. "Sorry."

Jack forced a ghostly smile and bent over to kiss him on the mouth. "Not your fault, Daniel. Just – stay like that – no one hurt you when you were like that."

"Okay." 

Jack's lips brushed across his lips as gently as though he thought Daniel was made of porcelain. The man said conversationally, "One thing the last three years has taught me, is that I can survive anything except you being hurt. You being hurt by other people nearly kills me. You being hurt by me would kill me."

Daniel stroked a finger down the side of the man's face. "You're not going to hurt me, Jack. You never have and you never would."

Jack kissed a trail on down Daniel's body, the lightest most delicate kisses, like butterflies alighting on the skin. "Then who was that son-of-a-bitch who punched you out after he came back from P3X-797?"

"Him?" Daniel pulled a face then gave a gasping little shiver as Jack's mouth found a nipple and sucked. "Just some caveman, I think. Never seen the guy since."

"Oh he's still around." Jack moved over to the next nipple and sucked that one to hardness as well. "When Siler told me how damned nice to you Davis was when I was on that sub, I definitely felt that caveman guy stirring."

Daniel gave another gasp as Jack's teeth closed on his right nipple. "Oh boy… What, you were jealous?"

Jack looked up so he could see that amused disbelief on Daniel's face. He scratched his jaw. "What's so funny about that?"

"You get jealous – of me?"

"Why the hell wouldn't I? You're gorgeous and young and beautiful and gorgeous. Did I mention you being gorgeous?"

Daniel shook his head. "Don't think it came up. Jack – seriously, you are the only guy in the universe."

"I think you'll find there are about a zillion others."

"Not for me." Daniel stroked a hand through Jack's hair, examining the different colors in it as he did so. "There's only one guy in the universe for me." He was so busy marveling at the beauty of Jack's hair he almost missed seeing the look in his eyes; that tenderness and love and disbelief that Daniel could love him; an expression which literally took Daniel's breath away. He found his voice with difficulty: "Jack, you're my whole damned world. How can you not know that?"

Before he could blink, Jack's hands were behind his head, and they were kissing like their lives depended on it. He closed his eyes and sucked Jack's tongue into his mouth, opening his legs, inviting Jack in, anywhere he wanted to go, inviting him to step inside his skin if he wanted to, to take any comfort he needed. When they pulled apart he could hear how Jack's breathing was ragged with passion, how badly the man needed this. Daniel gazed up at him, wanting Jack to realize what was so damned obvious to him. "Take anything you want, Jack. Take anything you need."

Jack kissed him again, breathless, forceful, almost bruising him with the force of it. Daniel put his head back so Jack could have access to his throat. Jack had a lot of bad memories to exorcize that was obvious. Jack was kissing him all over now, fingers kneading his skin, mouth licking and biting a trail down his body. Daniel relaxed into it, arching his back, murmuring any soothing nonsense he could think of to let Jack know that anything he wanted was fine with him.

Jack put his hands in Daniel's hair, kissing him again, incredible hunger in each kiss, his tongue thrusting into Daniel's mouth in a way that made Daniel get rock hard in an instant. "Yes…" he breathed. "Please, yes, Jack…please…" He knew he wasn't being very coherent, but Jack seemed to know exactly what he meant. 

When Jack abruptly tore himself away, Daniel reached out for him. "What? What are you doing?" Come back right now, damnit!

As Jack started throwing suitcases around, Daniel sat up on the bed. "Damn it, Jack, this is definitely an anthropological mission which means I'm in charge, and I am ordering you to get your butt back on this bed, right now!"

"Can't until I – got to get – " Jack was throwing things out of his suitcase, socks and underwear festooning the chairs and floor before he pounced on something. "Yes! Thank you, Carter!"

"Sam?" Daniel ran a hand through his hair. "What are we thanking Sam for?"

Jack landed on the mattress so hard Daniel was bounced up into the air. As he fell back on the coverlet, Jack was already kissing him again. As they pulled apart breathlessly, Jack held up a tube of something shiny. "Going away present from Carter. She wished me luck and gave me this." It had a blue ribbon tied around it, Daniel noticed, and a handwritten tag attached: Not asking. Not telling. Just hoping.

Daniel smiled. "Thank you, Sam." He looked up into Jack's eyes, reading the heat in them, not to mention the tenderness, the love, the little tinge of anxiety. Daniel brushed his mouth against Jack's. "You won't hurt me."

They kissed again, slow, passionate, deep, Jack's tongue thrusting gently into Daniel's mouth while Daniel opened his legs again. He reached for Jack's shaft with his right hand, stroking it gently, and felt it harden at once. Jack's fingers returned the favor, pulling at Daniel's cock, slow strokes that made Daniel gasp with pleasure. He pulled at Jack's shaft a little harder, increasing the rhythm and felt Jack match speed with him, pleasure jolting through him. The pleasure built, hotter and harder, and then the hand was removed from his cock, making Daniel gasp in mingled disappointment and relief. He felt his balls fondled, separated, squeezed very gently in their sacs, and then a slick finger traced the line of his perineum, slipped between his cheeks and very gently probed his opening.

He pulled hard on Jack's cock, sucked on Jack's tongue fiercely, opening his legs wider, urging him on. The finger pushed inside him, and he groaned, straddling wider, trying to give the man the best possible access. The finger pushed deeper, and the tongue was pulled out of his mouth as they both gasped for breath. Sweat was trickling down his body, every cell in a state of arousal so extreme it was almost painful. He let go of Jack's cock and sat up, trying to push the finger in deeper, rubbing his cheek against the man's stubble as he gasped into Jack's neck, "Do it, Jack, please…"

"I'm getting there, Danny, I swear."

The finger was all the way in now and it felt so damned right. Daniel tightened around it and realized he could feel a lot more down there than he'd imagined. When the fingertip brushed against his prostate a lightning bolt of pleasure went straight to his groin. "Oh God…hurry, Jack, please hurry…"

Jack ran his left hand up the back of Daniel's neck then clenched it gently in his hair, easing him back down onto the bed. The finger was withdrawn then two were carefully inserted. Jack kissed a trail down his body as he pushed the fingers rhythmically inside Daniel, stretching him very gently. Daniel groaned again with the pleasure of it. All he could think about was Jack's cock inside him and how badly he wanted it. When Jack's mouth closed over the head of his cock, he lunged upwards, damned near coming right there. Jack sucked, and Daniel had to concentrate very hard to stop himself from climaxing. He could feel what those fingers were doing now, three of them, stretching him further, a strange sensation, flickers of pain in it but swamped by the incredible pleasure of that mouth over his cock, those lightning bolts across his prostate.

"Now!" he gasped, hands reaching for the back of the man's head, not sure if he wanted to push him in deeper or pull him off before it was too late. "Please, Jack – now!"

Jack lifted his head from Daniel's cock. "Okay. Promise me you'll tell me if it hurts?"

Daniel twisted his head from side to side as those torturing fingers found his prostate again. "Damnit, Jack!"

"Okay, okay…" Jack slipped the fingers out and Daniel gasped with the loss of them. Then the bed creaked as Jack moved up onto it, hands going behind Daniel's thighs as he lifted his legs. 

Daniel looked up at those brown eyes with all that love in them just for him. Jack stroked a finger down his face and then they were kissing and something slippery and hard was sliding inside him. He gasped with the shock of it and then sucked hard on Jack's tongue, hands going to Jack's face so the man couldn't pull back, couldn't stop because he wanted this, God but he wanted this. He wrapped his legs around Jack and pulled in time to Jack's gentle pushing so they both eased the cock inside him, incredibly slowly and gently, until at last he could feel Jack was buried to the root inside him, and they were both panting with success, sweat and kisses intermingling.

"Am I hurting you?" Jack whispered it gently as he stroked a sweat-soaked strand of Daniel's fringe back from his face.

"No." Daniel hoped Jack could read the truth of that in his eyes. He reached up and stroked a finger down the man's face. "But, Jack…?"

"What?"

"You're going to grow your hair again, right?"

Jack grinned, the anxiety dissolving just as Daniel had hoped. "That does it, the second we get back to base, I'm shaving my head."

Daniel moved underneath him, trying to see if he could get Jack's cock to slide back a little without hurting himself, so he could then make it slide forwards and hopefully hit his prostate. When he pulled back the cock slid easily, so slicked with lube it didn't even bruise him and he realized he'd adjusted to its size. That was good. This felt like the proper place for Jack's cock to be from now on so it was just as well his body seemed to know it too. Daniel wriggled back cautiously and then pushed forward, Jack's cock sliding in deeper just the way he'd planned. He smiled triumphantly before looking up at the man. "You shave your head and that's the last time Tab A gets to fit in this particular Slot B."

"Or I could grow it." Jack shrugged casually. "I'm pretty easy."

"I noticed."

"Just for that…" Jack smothered him in a kiss so fiercely passionate it literally left him breathless, then Jack was pulling back before pushing forwards. A deep slow thrust that opened Daniel up and set firecrackers going off in every erogenous zone he possessed. "Oh God…" He'd wanted this to last forever, but he realized that definitely wasn't going to be possible. Jack's naked body rubbing against his, Jack's sweat dripping onto his chest, Jack's mouth bruising his, and Jack's cock thrusting into him, slow, deep strokes that glanced across his prostate with unerring accuracy were all having the effect of pretty much blowing his mind. Another thrust, deeper and a little faster jangled straight through every nerve ending. Another, faster again.

"Yes…!" Daniel couldn't help himself. Jack had been whispering it into his ear earlier, telling him to give it up, give it up to him, to come as high and hard and loud as he wanted to but there had been a part of him that felt the need to hold back. The next thrust dissolved that part. "Yes, Jack! Yes!" He gasped as the pleasure began to build, staring up into Jack's eyes, seeing the man with his gaze fixed on his face, watching every thrust, looking for the pain or pleasure that meant he needed to adjust his rhythm, watching over him, totally focused on him, giving him this pleasure and not even thinking about his own.

"Let go, Jack," Daniel managed breathlessly. "Hard and deep and fast as you like. You won't hurt me, I promise you won't hurt me."

Jack hesitated then thrust harder, wincing in anticipation. Daniel smiled. "Feels wonderful, I swear. Harder, Jack, please… I want you to come with me. I want us to come together, and I can't hold out much longer so you have to catch up…"

And then he saw Jack's resistance dissolve, the man relax, bend down, kiss him fiercely, and then he was thrusting into him with real passion, deep, hot, and hard. Daniel felt the pleasure jolting through him and this time he could see Jack was starting to float on that climax cloud as well; he matched his rhythm to Jack's, tightening a little in time with each thrust, seeing the pleasure jolt back into the man when he did so. And then Jack was pounding into him, the bolts to his prostate coming so fast and hard Daniel felt himself right on the brink –

"Daniel!" 

Jack gasping his name tipped him over the edge. "Jack!" 

As they tumbled into orgasm together, Daniel wondered if this was what it felt like when your plane went down, all flames and G-force and the world spinning out of control beneath you. He crash-landed into Jack's arms, the man kissing him over and over, hands at the side of his face, forehead touching his. Checking him for damage, Daniel thought with a smile. He snatched a breath and returned some of those kisses with interest, running his hands through Jack's hair. "Thank you," he managed breathlessly. "That was fun."

Jack nodded, panting as he did so. "Should – definitely do that again sometime…"

Daniel realized night had fallen while they'd been…otherwise engaged; most of the room was shrouded in darkness now; they'd knocked the table lamp onto the floor, and he couldn't see anything except how incredibly beautiful Jack looked naked in the moonlight streaming in through the door. On the other hand, there was nothing else he really wanted to see right now. He kissed Jack's neck, those hard little stubs of hair against his tongue just demanding to be nibbled. 

Jack was tugging him along the bed, an arm around his waist pulling him around a little, up a little. Oh they were heading for the pillows instead of sprawling diagonally across the coverlet, were they? That was fine with him. Just as long as he was going where Jack was going he didn't care where it was. They could go and sleep in the root cellar as long as he was with Jack. 

He realized Jack had pulled him up to the top of the bed now. He was folding back the coverlet, posting them both into it, wriggling them into the center of the bed. Daniel let him do it, body warm, relaxed and drowsy, his sweat-slicked naked skin just very glad to feel Jack's equally sweat-slicked naked skin against it. He rolled over so he was lying with his head on Jack's chest, listening to his heartbeat, the rise and fall of those lungs still slightly accelerated from their recent exertions. Jack's arm went around him and a kiss was dropped on the top of his head. Daniel stroked a finger through Jack's chest hair, nuzzling thoughtfully at a nipple. "Jack?"

"Yes, Daniel?" The man's voice was very soft and inviting; as though he knew he had something difficult to say and was going to help him through it.

Daniel hadn't thought he'd ever tell him this but it seemed important that he did. "When I was out on the lake…the music wasn't the only thing I heard. I heard…"

"Sha're?"

The question was so unexpected Daniel jerked his head up and looked into Jack's steady brown eyes. He swallowed. "She said…" This time he left the gap on purpose, just in case Jack knew what came next.

Jack reached out and stroked his hair again. " 'Go to him'."

"Yes." Daniel stared at him in disbelief. "How can you…?"

"She said it to me too. She was the one who sent me to the dream-place. She loved you."

"Yes." Daniel thought of how much she'd loved him and winced. He'd never been good enough for her. Never.

Jack's finger under his chin tilted his head up, made him meet his gaze. "She wanted you to be happy. She thought I'd make you happy. Was she wrong?"

Daniel felt the knot of grief inside him unclench a little. Sam had told him to hang onto those memories, once in his dream, and once in reality. He smiled faintly. "When Sha're and I were first married she told me that there was something I should know about her – that she was never wrong about anything. She said this was actually true of all women but unfortunately we men weren't clever enough to realize it."

"Sara told me that too."

"Well, they were obviously telling the truth, because I never knew Sha're to be wrong about anything." He met Jack's gaze. "And she was obviously right when she told me to go to you. Yes, Jack, you make me very happy."

"Good." Jack bent and planted a kiss on his head. "Now go to sleep and let me think up some new ways to make you even happier."

Daniel smiled drowsily, settling back down on Jack's chest. "Sounds like a plan to me."

As he drifted off to sleep, he felt Jack's lips very gently brush the top of his head again and heard the man whisper, "Sweet dreams, Daniel. Sweet dreams…"

##### The End

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Stargate Sg-1 and its characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Productions. This story is for entertainment purposes only and no money exchanged hands. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations, and story are the property of the author. This story may not be posted elsewhere without the consent of the author.


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